As Australia’s political parties vie for media attention arguing for and against migration policies, we want to know:

What would a change in migration policy do to Australian businesses? 

We asked our sector specialists to share what they're seeing and hearing within their respective industries.

For context: What the migration statistics tell us

While it’s easy to get swept up in the political conversation, the official migration figures often paint a clearer picture. 

During the height of the pandemic, migration levels slumped dramatically, with net overseas migration turning negative in 2020-21 as more people left Australia than arrived. This was our nation’s first annual net migration loss since 1946 and the second lowest on record.

After the pandemic we saw a steep correction, which has since been followed by a consistent decline towards pre-pandemic levels.

The most recent migration data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) tells us that for the financial year ending 2025:

The top four countries of birth for people migrating to Australia were China, India, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Temporary visitor visa holders decreased by 34%, international students decreased by 23%, and permanent visa holders decreased by 3%.

The median age of migrant arrivals was 26 years and the most frequently occurring age was 23 years (majority of which were international students).

In September 2026, the ABS released data on migrant settlement outcomes - providing insights into the general outcomes of migration that had occurred over the previous five years. 

It showed that in 2021, the labour force status of migrants aged 15-64 years was 74% employed, 4.5% unemployed and 21% not in the labour force for permanent migrants. 

Employment proportions were highest for skilled migrants (82%) and lowest for humanitarian migrants (46%).

Other key insights include:

89%

of permanent migrants were proficient in English in 2021

$70,762

median total income for permanent migrants aged 15-64 years in 2023-24

4.3%

of permanent migrants received unemployment payments compared to 6.2% for the total Australian population

In terms of workforce outcomes, a Migrant Skills Report published by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) found it takes an average 15 years for a migrant's wages to catch up to their locally born peers. 

In 2021, nearly a quarter of permanent skilled migrants in Australia were working in a job beneath their skill level, with the level of mismatch being substantially higher among migrants on family and humanitarian visas.

Migration and industry

The million-dollar question is whether migration is helping to close Australia's critical skills gaps, or even just keep pace with growing labour demand.

According to the Jobs and Skills Australia Occupation Shortage Report March 2026, national vacancy fill rates fell to 68.2% - meaning fewer advertised jobs are being successfully filled by employers. This is likely due to a combination of factors, with the key ones being limited availability of appropriately qualified staff, and employers becoming highly selective with shortlists due to the tighter economic environment. 

Across the board though, the competition for skilled workers remains high in most sectors. It is particularly evident in agribusiness, health, community services, construction and education where organisations are reporting an inability to scale, meet demand for services, or remain financially sustainable due to a lack of resources. 

Drawing on their experience working closely with clients, we asked our sector specialists to share their insights on what’s unfolding within their industries.
 

Agribusiness

Ross Paterson
RSM Partner and National Agribusiness Lead

Ross Paterson, RSM Partner and National Agribusiness Lead, says there is a broader conversation to be had about productivity in agriculture. He notes that both the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme and working holiday makers play an important role in helping farmers fill jobs that are often difficult to staff locally.

In broadacre cropping, backpackers are particularly valuable because many arrive with the skills and capability to operate sophisticated machinery.

“The proposed changes to second and third-year working holiday visas are disappointing from a productivity perspective. Under the current system, workers who complete the required regional work can continue contributing to the sector. Under the proposed arrangements, eligible workers would enter a ballot for a limited number of places. This creates a lot of uncertainty for workers and employers. For farmers, it can mean repeatedly recruiting and re-training people instead of retaining those who already understand the operation.

“Industry has also raised concerns about longer visa processing times, arguing that workers are essential to regional businesses and processing delays can make it harder to meet seasonal labour needs.

“Many in the sector believe the focus should be on improving labour supply and processing efficiency, rather than reducing access to a workforce that contributes significantly to farm productivity."

Health services

Jayesh Kapitan
Partner and National Health Services Lead

Jayesh Kapitan, Partner and National Health Services Lead, says health is fundamentally a care sector, and care needs people. While technology will continue to support the health system, it can’t replace the human at the bedside.

“Care services can’t be offshored, automated or left in the hands of AI.  These are services that have to be delivered in person, by humans. Without enough people, we compromise our ability to provide the level of care Australians need." 

As demand grows, workforce capacity is central to the sector’s ability to deliver the care the community expects. 

Without people, we put that standard and quality of care at risk.

“Any migration solution that Australia seeks to implement needs to be driven by skills shortages, timeliness of getting those skills into the country and at the right location.”

Community services

Andrew Bowcher
RSM Partner and not-for-profit specialist

According to Andrew Bowcher, RSM Partner and not-for-profit specialist, skills shortages are an ongoing pain point for clients. Data from Jobs and Skills Australia confirms the not-for-profit sector struggles with persistent shortages of suitably qualified workers in aged care, disability services, child and family health services, and community services.

The last micro-data available from the ABS also shows the sector heavily utilises migrants who make up almost 20% of the workforce.

“Ideally we would see well-considered policies from government that respect the important role migrants play in helping to close these skills gaps, while weighing the impacts of population growth such as housing availability and service demand.

“Initiatives like the Skills in Demand Visa program are a step in the right direction, but policy needs to be matched with consistent action. These programs are often criticised for having exceptional backlogs or process failures that do little to address the extent of the need on the ground. Australia has an ageing population and a birth rate that continues to slide to historic lows. If non-profits can’t get the staff they need to support our older generation, we could be at the precipice of a very challenging time.”

Property and construction

Adam Crowley
Partner and National Real Estate and Construction Lead

Adam Crowley, Partner and National Real Estate and Construction Lead, notes that migration has always been part of how Australia builds, and skilled tradespeople from overseas make a real contribution to the industry. However, it’s important to be honest about the numbers. 

“After two years of the National Housing Accord, we are already around 124,000 homes behind where we need to be, while the population grew by almost 393,000 people in the year to March 2026, well above the average of the 2010s. You can’t keep adding demand at that pace when the industry can’t deliver the supply. The result is higher rents, worsening affordability and growing strain on infrastructure and services, and it is younger Australians and new arrivals themselves who bear the brunt."

“Overall intake needs to be set with housing capacity in mind, not treated as a separate lever. Until supply catches up, the focus should be firmly on quality. Construction trades remain under-represented in the skilled intake, and industry estimates around 18,400 permanent migrants with building and construction qualifications are working below their skill level because of slow recognition and licensing. That is a system failing on its own terms.”

Adam says the priority should be bringing in the people who will actually build, getting skilled people already here onto sites faster, and stripping back the planning delays, red tape and cost layers that make every home more expensive to deliver.

“Migration can be part of the solution, but only if it is matched to our capacity to house people.”

“Any migration solution that Australia seeks to implement needs to be driven by skills shortages, timeliness of getting those skills into the country and at the right location.”

Education

Shashank Laroiya
Senior Manager in Risk Advisory

Shashank Laroiya, Senior Manager in Risk Advisory and a specialist in education says Australia attracts ambitious people from around the world to study, develop skills and build connections.  

“There is a risk in treating education, migration and workforce planning as separate policy conversations. When those systems are not aligned, Australia can simultaneously face skills shortages while highly capable people struggle to find pathways to make full use of their education.

“The opportunity is to think about the whole talent pipeline, from education and skills development through to employment and long-term contribution. In that context, education is part of Australia’s workforce resilience and future productivity.”

Finding a balance between industry need and government policy

While the industry focus is very much centred on addressing workforce shortages, governments do face the difficult challenge of balancing economic needs with housing, infrastructure, public services and long-term population planning.

Amit Kabra, Partner and National Government and Public Sector Lead, says a recency bias in the migration numbers distracts people from the longer-term strategic objective of how migration should be managed.  He notes that the central problem is not simply a high number of migrants, but the lack of consideration and coordination between the migration policy and Australia’s capacity to back it up with all the necessary infrastructure.

Amit Kabra
Partner and National Government and Public Sector Lead

“A sudden increase in migration invariably leads to increased demand and hence inflation in the short term as it puts significant pressure on housing, transport, schools, health and local services which are slow-moving on the supply side.  Having said that, a more structured and less damaging migration program would be supported by a targeted sector approach, which means skills are targeted to where they are needed the most and will be the most productive.” 

Where to from here?

  

The debate around migration is unlikely to become simpler anytime soon. 

Employers continue to face skills shortages, governments are under pressure to support housing affordability and infrastructure, and communities want confidence that population growth is being managed sustainably. The way to attain the right balance between these competing priorities is not yet clear. 

What is clear is that migration cannot be viewed as a standalone policy issue. Decisions extend well beyond migration itself – and long-term success will depend on how effectively these areas are considered together rather than in isolation.

So where to from here?

There is unlikely to be a single solution that satisfies every stakeholder or resolves every challenge.

What matters now is developing practical, sustainable policies that recognise both the benefits of migration and the responsibilities it creates.

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