Candidates on Working Holiday visas are arriving in Sydney in droves.

However, in the Sydney job market right now, there are simply not enough roles for them…What is everyone’s view on the maximum 6 months per employer ruling?

Immigration say it’s in place to protect Australian workers however, we were searching for a superstar office manager (12 month contract) recently and the only people who actually applied, and wanted to work (!!) were the travellers!

Permanent residents did apply however, between the “if it’s not hybrid, I’m not interested” (difficult when you need to oversee the office), through to “8.30am sounds like a very early start” (yes that is exactly what they said)… I feel the immigration department should be lifting this ruling to allow the skilled travellers to gain meaningful employment.

Not only that, it takes 6 months to bring someone up to speed – therefore, as soon as they are trained up they have to leave again. No wonder employers constantly gloss over them, despite the fact that many have fantastic skills and exceptional attitudes.

In my view, the working holiday visa restrictions need to change – we have great talent in the Sydney market that would add so much value to employers, yet we simply cannot utilise it!