New settlers have their say - How immigrants fare over the early years of settlement

Executive Summary

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Labour Force Experiences

An important aspect to successful immigration and integration into the Australian community is often related to gaining employment.

The LSIA data confirm that labour market outcomes improve over time for immigrants, as their period of residence lengthens. The likelihood of employment increased substantially over the survey waves, such that at about three and a half years after arriving in Australia, nearly six out of ten immigrants were employed. Over the same period, unemployment fell sharply, with the unemployment rate at the third wave half the initial rate.

Numerous differences by visa eligibility category were evident in the labour market results. Specifically, labour force participation was markedly higher and unemployment was much lower for those immigrants who had entered Australia on the basis of their job-related and business skills, rather than for those who had entered Australia based solely on Humanitarian grounds or family ties.

While there was little evidence of convergence of participation rates over time across the visa entry groups, there is more evidence of convergence of unemployment rates. That is, while unemployment rates were still much higher at Wave 3 for Humanitarian visa entrants (33 per cent) and, to a lesser degree, for the Preferential Family entrants (16 per cent) than for the other groups, the differences are not as large as they were at Wave 1.

Differences in labour market success were also found to relate to English language speaking skills and post-secondary qualifications, such that those immigrants who held a post-secondary qualification and those with good English speaking skills were much more likely to have participated in the labour force and much less likely to be unemployed (regardless of their visa eligibility category). Indeed, the probability of being unemployed was five times greater for those who had poor, rather than good, English speaking skills.

Another measure of labour market success is the type of occupation held by those who were employed. At each of the three time points considered, about one-third of the immigrants were in a skilled job, one-quarter were in a semi-skilled job and just over 40 per cent were in an unskilled job.

Compared with all employed persons in Australia, these data suggest a polarisation, such that the immigrants were more likely than average to hold jobs that were either skilled or unskilled, while they were less likely than average to hold jobs that were semi-skilled.

Stark differences were again found according to visa category such that Humanitarian visa entrants were concentrated in unskilled jobs, while the Business Skills and Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) entrants were concentrated in skilled jobs.

Although the majority of employed immigrants were in a job with the same skill level at Wave 3 as they were in at Wave 1, there was some evidence of occupational mobility over time: 17 per cent of the sample held a job at Wave 3 that was at a higher skill level than the job they held at Wave 1. In contrast, 9 per cent held a job at Wave 3 that was at a lower skill level than their job at Wave 1. As for the Humanitarian entrants, just over three-quarters of these immigrants held unskilled jobs at both Waves 1 and 3.

Of those immigrants who held both a job and post-secondary qualifications, approximately one-half said they used their highest qualification in their job often or very often. The importance of good English language skills was evidenced once again, as those with such skills were more likely than those with poor English skills to have made use of their qualifications (regardless of visa category considered).

The Humanitarian visa entrants were least likely of all the immigrant groups to say they used their qualifications in their work, suggesting that these immigrants are least likely to gain jobs which take full advantage of their skills. This could reflect, at least partly, that Humanitarian entrants have lower English language skills and that they (as well as Preferential Family entrants) do not have their skills checked to ensure these meet Australian requirements prior to migration.

Informal job search methods - especially gaining information about jobs from friends and family - rather than formal methods were used most frequently by immigrants to locate their jobs at each of the three survey waves.

Nonetheless, formal methods also played a role, with employment agencies and the English language media accounting for about 40 per cent of successful job searches. Business/ENS visa entrants, as well as Humanitarian entrants, were more likely than average to have successfully made use of informal job search methods.

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