Another day, another story about how the collapse in immigration is driving up wages and conditions for domestic workers that no longer have to compete for jobs with foreigners. This time the empirical evidence is from New Zealand, which in the years leading up to COVID ran a similar mass immigration policy to Australia:
Skilled job hunters are in the driver’s seat to negotiate better pay and perks say recruiters, as the Government confirms tight border controls won’t be relaxed till the first part of 2022 at the earliest…
An associate director of international recruitment agency Robert Walters says it is “hot, hot, hot’ in her recruitment zone…
“Companies are having to adjust and adopt a retention strategy to keep good staff and some are offering sign-on bonuses to get a new employee,” she said…
In its 2021/22 Australia and New Zealand salary guide Hays Recruitment state that job candidates are in the driving seat… Almost half intended to increase their permanent headcount in the year ahead and 67 per cent said they would increase salaries.
“More skilled professionals will receive a pay rise because with skills in demand, employers are re-examining pay”…
Drake New Zealand’s Wellington-based manager Steve Humphrey said that in such a competitive environment, said there had been a big upswing in permanent positions rather than temporary contracts…
No wonder businesses want borders open. Flooding the labour market with foreigners necessarily reduces workers’ bargaining power and lowers wages, increasing business profits. By contrast, lower immigration means higher wages and less profits.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus ‘gets it’:
So why is Labor remaining deafly silent while the Morrison Government wages a quiet war on the working class?
