The number of 457 workers employed in construction and mining also plummeted over the past financial year, while retail reported an almost 54 per cent decline in staff numbers to 2150.
Chef Kevin McKeown, one of the 5330 skilled visa workers employed in the food services sector, says Australian diners will miss out without overseas talent.
“Some of the best chefs we've had have all gone through the same process, you know the 457 visa,” he said.
“To take that away would be a massive shame.”
Arriving in Australia from Belfast on a working holiday a decade ago, Mr McKeown is now a permanent resident.
In that time, he’s helped build a successful chain of restaurants in Sydney with his boss George Vardis, who described the 457 program as “bloody good”.
Ten per cent of George Vardis's 120 workers are on 457 visas.
He says despite business being good, that number is likely to fall.
“I'm put off and I am disheartened by the way things are going,” he said.
“The costs keep going up and I think the paperwork is unnecessary.”
Australia's hospitality sector is growing and is the biggest employer of foreign workers, and while some warn less skilled visas risk putting the brakes on growing industries, others maintain the system is still being abused.
Dr Bob Birrell, a Monash University demographer, said “you might ask how is it that 52,000 were visa-ed 2013/14 when the labour market was so weak”.
