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News.com.au
15-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
NT Government employment platform WorkerConnect working wonders
An innovative Northern Territory Government employment platform is working wonders. WorkerConnect is tackling the NT's labour shortage by helping employers and jobseekers. The easy-to-use platform is not only making it easier for Territorians to fill jobs but is also enticing many people from interstate and overseas to move to the Territory. WorkerConnect is free to use – businesses can post job ads and find suitable candidates, and jobseekers can check job vacancies and upload their CVs. One of the many enterprises using WorkerConnect is the Nightcliff Sports Club in Darwin's northern suburbs. Manager Paul McGuire, who moved to Darwin from the Gold Coast with his wife Angela earlier this year and immediately bought a house, heard about the digital platform through discussions with the NT Government and through the Designated Area Migration Agreement, NT DAMA. 'WorkerConnect was so easy to use,' he says. 'It's tailored for NT employers looking to fill skill shortages, especially in regional areas. It's great to see candidates who are genuinely interested in living and working in the NT.' The sports club has hired three overseas team members, Parakorn Kunarak from Thailand, Jane Rinelke from Indonesia and Huizhong 'Jo' Ku from China. 'It was a smooth process,' says Paul. 'They have settled in well and become valuable members of our team.' Traffic management company, Trafficwerx NT is another Territory business benefiting from the WorkerConnect platform. Trafficwerx NT has a dedicated team of traffic controllers available 24 hours a day 365 days a year but are always on the lookout for new team members. The WorkerConnect has helped the company find new workers at short notice. Trafficwerx NT media liaison officer, Jen Fellows said 'WorkerConnect a great way to connect with local talent and promote opportunities across a range of industries'. 'We have used WorkerConnect to post job vacancies, explore candidate profiles and share what qualifications are needed to start working in our industry. 'The AirCV and alerts features are handy for streamlining recruitment. It is also great that we can post jobs on the platform for free. 'I absolutely recommended other businesses to utilise WorkerConnect.' The Northern Territory Government and industry representatives are heading to New Zealand to encourage jobseekers to make the move, and work and live in the Territory. The team will deliver a worker attraction seminar in Christchurch on 23 July and a NT Jobs Expo in Auckland on 26 and 27 July. vacancies can be discovered by jobseekers.
CNA
03-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
In labour-starved Japan, workers land another bumper pay hike
TOKYO :Japanese companies agreed to raise wages by an average 5.25 per cent this year, their biggest pay hike in 34 years and the third straight year of robust growth as they grapple with severe labour shortages and seek to shield workers from inflation. The final figure tallied on Thursday by the Rengo labour union group - Japan's largest with 7 million members - follows an increase of 5.10 per cent last year and 3.58 per cent the year before - a sharp contrast to prior decades of stagnant wages. Japan's biggest business lobby Keidanren also said on Thursday that the average summer bonus payment at major companies this year increased 4.37 per cent from the previous year to a record 990,848 yen ($6,889). Rapidly ageing Japan has developed an extreme labour crunch with shortages among non-manufacturers and small firms reaching historic levels, even pushing some into bankruptcy. A Reuters survey published in January showed that two-thirds of Japanese companies believe that labour shortfalls were seriously or fairly seriously affecting their businesses. Whereas workers around the world are unhappy about high levels of inflation, the Japanese now have much more bargaining power. "There is an emerging consensus among companies that a pay raise that exceeds inflation is a must," a government official said on condition of anonymity. "It's the new norm now." Inflation in Japan, as measured by the core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, is currently around 3.7 per cent. Fresh food prices have also risen steeply, causing much angst among consumers. Steady wage hikes are crucial for sustaining a consumption-led recovery - a prerequisite for the Bank of Japan to resume interest rate hikes. Mizuho Research & Technologies predicts wages will increase 4.7 per cent next year, assuming oil prices will weaken and help cushion the impact that U.S. tariffs are likely to have on corporate profits. "As wage hike momentum is likely to be confirmed in January-March, we expect the BOJ to start raising interest rates during that quarter," said Saisuke Sakai, chief Japan economist at Mizuho Research. That view is reasonably widespread with a slight majority of economists in a Reuters poll expecting the BOJ's next 25-basis-point increase to come in early 2026. Toru Suehiro, chief economist at Daiwa Securities, similarly predicts an average wage hike of 4.5 per cent to 4.9 per cent next year but notes that Japan's non-manufacturers will have to step up and take on a leading role in raising pay as manufacturers will be hit by U.S. tariffs. "Wage growth in recent years was led by manufacturers which benefited from a weak yen, but now it's going to have to work differently," he said. Trade talks between the U.S. and Japan have hit roadblocks and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a tariff of 30 per cent or 35 per cent on Japanese imports, well above the 24 per cent rate he announced on April 2 and then paused until July 9.
Reuters
30-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Italy to issue half million non-EU work visas over next three years
ROME, June 30 (Reuters) - Italy will issue nearly 500,000 new work visas for non-EU nationals from 2026 to 2028, a cabinet statement said on Monday, as part of a strategy to expand legal immigration channels in response to labour shortages. A total 164,850 people will be allowed in next year, aiming to reach a cumulative total of 497,550 new entries by 2028. It is the second such move Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made since she took office nearly three years ago as the head of a right-wing coalition. The government had already decided to issue over 450,000 permits to migrants between 2023 and 2025. Alongside rules to allow in new workers, Meloni has taken a tough stance against illegal arrivals, moving to speed up repatriations and curbing the activities of charities rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean. "The quotas were determined taking into account the needs expressed by the social partners and the actual applications for work permits submitted in previous years, with the aim of a programme that responds to the needs of businesses and is also realistic," the statement said. An ageing population and a sagging birthrate highlight the need to attract foreign workers in the euro zone's third largest economy. There were some 281,000 more deaths than births in 2024 and the population fell by 37,000 to 58.93 million, continuing a decade-long trend. Agricultural lobby Coldiretti welcomed the government's plan, saying it represented an important step to guarantee the availability of workers in the fields and the country's food production. "The government will continue with determination to allow legal migration channels, benefiting important sectors of our economy," Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told daily La Stampa on Sunday. To counter the ongoing depopulation and maintain current levels of inhabitants, Italy would need to take in at least 10 million immigrants by 2050, according to research by the Osservatorio Conti Pubblici think tank.
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Germany urgently needs to attract migrant workers – it just doesn't want them to feel welcome
Friedrich Merz's government has sent a clear message to anyone thinking about coming to live in Germany: don't. Yet its message to those who want to come to Germany to work is: we need you. This might sound like a contradiction, but it is a revival of the thinking that drove the 'guest worker' programme of the postwar boom years. Between 1955 and 1973, West Germany sought to rebuild its economy by attracting labour, mainly from Turkey but also from Italy, Portugal and Yugoslavia. Yet it did so without giving much consideration to the human needs of the people coming. Repeating that experiment, and the social tensions it created, at this moment would be even worse. The Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) fuelled record growth and labour shortages. Now, Germany's economy is in recession, but it desperately needs people to fulfil basic public services. Above all, it needs them to help finance its mounting pensions bill. Given that Germany has also become ground zero for Europe's heightened sensitivity around immigration after the backlash that followed Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards Syrian refugees a decade ago, it's worth paying attention to how Berlin navigates the issue. So far, Merz is providing a masterclass in what not to do. On the one hand, the conservative chancellor is fuelling rightwing narratives that suggest migration is a threat to the country. On the other, he speaks as the voice of German business and pleads for more foreign workers. 'We need skilled immigrants as drivers of progress,' Merz said this month, at a ceremony to honour the contributions of Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin – the Turkish immigrants behind Covid vaccine pioneer BioNTech. He added that anti-immigration 'ideologies' were a threat not just to Germany's prosperity 'but even worse, their narrow-mindedness threatens the future of our liberal order'. But his government has sent exactly the kind of signal he claims to decry. Germany has continued with a new policy of rejecting asylum seekers at its borders, despite a court order calling it unlawful and a violation of EU law. The border rejections standoff comes despite a dramatic decline in refugees – up to April 2025, the figures were down by nearly half from the previous year. Another leg of Merz's anti-migration strategy is to put an end to 'turbo naturalisation', which allows newcomers the opportunity to apply for a German passport after as little as three years in select cases. The official justification is that ending fast-track citizenship will eliminate a 'pull factor' and reduce illegal migration. But obtaining citizenship and skirting migration rules have nothing to do with one another. Crossing the border as an irregular migrant can be an act of desperation, and at times opportunism. Getting a German passport requires legal residency at the very least, but also involves various hurdles and a significant amount of paperwork. The fast-track procedure is even more discretionary and reserved for people that exhibit 'exceptional integration efforts', such as speaking German at an advanced level, consistently paying taxes and taking part in the community, for example by volunteering at local charities or sports clubs. Eliminating that route, which only opened in June 2024, will have very little impact. Last year – when a rush to take advantage of the new process might have been expected – only about 7% of people receiving German citizenship had an accelerated application, according to federal statistics agency Destatis. But Merz's moves reinforce the narrative that Germany is being overwhelmed by newcomers. The approach bolsters the far-right AfD – a close second in the polls – which has called for the deportation of thousands of people, including some with migrant backgrounds who hold German citizenship. Controlling entry is legitimate, but such grandstanding policies fuel xenophobic sentiment and don't allay the worries of anxious citizens. Also, the political dividends are limited. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion While the fevered discussion around migration has kept it as the top issue for Germans, only 38% of people ranked it as one of their three main concerns, which is four percentage points lower than in April, according to an Ipsos survey. Economic concerns such as inflation and poverty/inequality are the other top concerns. The harder-to-face reality is that Germany could use all the help it can get. With older Germans heading into retirement by the millions over the coming decade, the country must welcome a net 400,000 newcomers each year to keep things balanced and shoulder the rising cost of pensions. But this isn't the postwar era, where Germany can sign agreements with poorer countries and expect thousands to arrive. There's global competition for qualified workers, and Germany is at a disadvantage because of its language and its reputation for being unwelcoming. That's a legacy from the mismanaged Gastarbeiter (guest worker) programme, when Germany had neither a plan for how to integrate the people it lured for work, nor the desire to do so. It also reflects a national identity left narrow and underdeveloped due to its Nazi past. The former footballer Mesut Özil, born in 1988 to a Turkish guest-worker family in Germany's Ruhr Valley, never felt fully accepted. Though he played a starring role in Germany's 2014 World Cup win, he said: 'When we win, I'm German; when we lose, I'm a foreigner.' His story shows how acceptance is out of reach for many. And it's not isolated. According to a recent study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, between 2015 and 2022, 12 million people migrated to Germany. The study also said that, in the same period, more than 7 million migrants left again. The main reasons were difficulties feeling part of German society. The next blow could be looming. According to a study by Germany's Institute for Employment Research, a quarter of migrants in the country – around 2.6 million people – are considering packing up and leaving. Germany's self-imposed isolation will lead to a slow erosion of the labour force unless it is urgently addressed. Revising the narrative around migration to recast it as part of the solution would be a good starting point. But the political class hardly looks ready. As Markus Söder, the conservative premier of Bavaria, recently told the rightwing media outlet NiUS: 'Of course we need immigration– unfortunately.' Chris Reiter and Will Wilkes are the co-authors of Broken Republik: The Inside Story of Germany's Descent Into Crisis. Both cover Germany from Berlin and Frankfurt, respectively, for Bloomberg News
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The US food and drinks industry needs immigrant labour – but the system requires reform
The Trump administration's ongoing immigration policy enforcement underlines an inconvenient truth about the US food and drinks industry – without undocumented immigrants, the system would not function, at least not in its current form. Earlier this month, the US federal government briefly issued guidance to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), pausing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on farms, hotels, restaurants and processing facilities, citing concerns about labour shortages. President Trump personally acknowledged in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that his 'very aggressive' policies were ripping long-time workers from jobs that are 'almost impossible to replace.' The major policy reversal followed pleas from industry leaders to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and directly to Trump himself, asking them to ease the ICE raids on these workplaces because it would lead to staff shortages due to the industry's reliance on immigrant labour. But, just days later, DHS reversed course, with Trump's approval, reinstating what it calls 'full-scale, quota-driven immigration enforcement with no safe spaces for industries.' In other words, ICE workplace raids on farms, food and drinks processing facilities, restaurants and hotels are back on – at least for now. The agency says it must meet a daily target of 3,000 arrests, even if it means resuming enforcement in critical industries like food and beverage. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who both want no exemptions or 'safe spaces' when it comes to the immigration enforcement, are believed to have played the key roles in changing the brief exemption Trump gave to agriculture and hospitality, winning out over Rollins, who was reflecting the wishes of industry leaders – and the reality that the industry in its current form is fuelled by the labour of undocumented immigrants. Stakeholders across the sector, from individual farmers and agriculture trade associations, to major company CEOs, were startled over the administration's flip-flop, resulting in the resumption of ICE workplace raids on farms and processing facilities. They say the resumed raids and deportation of those arrested are triggering labour shortages, absenteeism among fearful staff and operational instability. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which represents family farmers and ranchers across the US, is expressing strong concern over the resumption of the ICE raids, saying they disrupt the workforce and could negatively impact the US food supply. In a strongly worded statement on 17 June, AFBF president Zippy Duvall not only decried the resumption of the ICE raids but also said current agriculture workforce programmes are broken. He called for comprehensive immigration reform that addresses border security, provides a legal and stable workforce for farmers and agribusinesses, and modernises existing farmworker programmes. Approximately 50% of agri-food industry workers in the US are estimated to lack legal work authorisation, according to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data. Farmworkers comprise the highest percentage of these undocumented immigrant workers. California is the nation's leading food and agriculture state and where, according to data from the governor's office and University of California, an estimated 50% or more of agri-food industry workers are undocumented. Industry leaders there are sounding the alarm over how the ICE raids at farms and processing facilities are making the already existing food and farm labour shortage even worse. The Western Growers Association, which represents the state's family farmers, is warning that targeting undocumented manufacturing and farm workers not only jeopardises harvests but also 'threatens segments of the largest state economy, with many crops left unpicked due to labour shortages.' Additionally, the California Farm Bureau, the state's largest agri-food industry organisation, Is warning that labour gaps from the deportation of undocumented farmworkers could lead to unharvested crops and ripple down through the supply chain, leading to shortages and price increases. California accounts for over 50% of the nation's output for fruits, nuts and vegetables, growing more than one-third of the vegetables and a whopping three‑quarters of fruits and nuts in the US, according to USDA data. It's also the nation's leading dairy production and processing state. CPG leaders like Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya have spoken out against the resumption of ICE raids. Ulukaya is urging the Trump administration to reconsider its position, saying at The Wall Street Journal's Global Food Forum in Chicago last week that the country's food supply chain is being threatened by aggressive nationwide immigrant enforcement raids. 'We need to be very realistic,' Ulukaya said at the forum. 'We need immigration and we need workers for our food system to work.' Ulukaya is right – and I believe the immigration flip-flop debacle actually opens rather than closes the door for what is much needed immigration reform for the food and drinks industry. The US agri-food system in its current form needs immigrant workers in order to function. I also believe Trump is aware of this fact and, based on what he's been saying lately, is open to immigration reform as it pertains to immigrant workers. Numerous Republicans and Democrats in Congress are also aware immigrant workers fuel the US agri-food industry. I believe they too are open to immigration relief for farm and manufacturing workers. To address this dependency on immigrant labour honestly, the US must enact policy reform with a package that looks something like this: The H-2A temporary agricultural visa is the primary legal pathway for foreign farmworkers but it is bureaucratic, costly and excludes year-round jobs, such as those on dairies and in meatpacking. Reform ideas: Streamline the application process. Allow year-round jobs to qualify. Offer a path to permanent residency for workers with long-term service. An estimated 50% (or more) of US farmworkers are undocumented. These workers form the backbone of food and drinks production, yet live in fear of deportation. Reform ideas: Enact legislation like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which passed in the US House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate. Allow undocumented workers to earn legal status through continuous agricultural employment, background checks and payment of taxes. Current visa programmes don't account for the unique demands of food processing, packaging and year-round crop work. Reform ideas: Develop a visa category specifically for the agri-food supply chain, from farm to processing, to distribution. Include flexible entry/exit options and labour protections. Immigrant agri-food workers are vulnerable to exploitation due to their immigration status. Reform ideas: Tie immigration reform to stronger enforcement of fair wages, safe working conditions and housing standards. Protect whistleblowers from retaliation or deportation when reporting labour violations. Farmers face labour shortages, while government visa systems and enforcement agencies often act in isolation or conflict. Reform ideas: Create a national database or registry of agri-food labour demand. Allow states to sponsor or co-manage temporary labour programmes based on regional workforce needs. Encourage public-private partnerships to recruit, train and place immigrant labour legally. Let's face it: pretending the US agri-food system in its current form can function without undocumented workers is a fantasy. Hoping Trump will change his mind again and exempt agri-food industry workers from immigration enforcement might not be a fantasy but it is folly because, among other things, hope isn't a strategy. Instead, the food and drinks industry and its supporters should focus – and do so immediately – on immigration relief and reform for agri-food workers, focusing on both the Trump administration and on Congress. It's the best strategy not only for the industry but also for consumers and the nation as a whole. "The US food and drinks industry needs immigrant labour – but the system requires reform" was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand. 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