IT workers top 2009-10 skilled migrations

Accountants, computing professionals and nurses topped last year's list of workers that moved to Australia via the Government's Skilled Migration program.

According to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's Report on Migration Program 2009-10 (pdf), 5,370 computing professionals moved to Australia in the past year.

They were among 107,868 of 168,623 migrants who were granted residency for their skills. Of those, more than 60 percent addressed shortages on the Government's Critical Skills List.

The list (pdf) granted priority processing to potential migrants with C++, C# or C*, data warehousing, Java, J2EE, Linux, .NET, security, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel, Solaris, or Unix skills.

It was revoked this year in favour of the Skilled Occupations List, which would be reviewed annually based on advice from Skills Australia.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said that the Government's migration program targeted the skills Australia needed for a healthy economy, highlighting "critical skills gaps" in the healthcare, engineering, financial services and IT sectors.

The Government expected skilled migration to increase by 5,750 places in the coming year, as the economic climate improved.