The addition of a labour agreement to the 457 regulations increased the financial obligations on labour hire firms that sponsor overseas workers on the 457 visa and set base requirements for the skill level and salary of on-hired workers.
Members of the Recruitment & Consulting Services Association and Information Technology Contract & Recruitment Association were surveyed to ascertain the potential impact of these changes on Australian employers' ability to hire workers on the 457 visa.
In the two years before the changes, 110 companies (73%) commenced at least one new 457 visa sponsorship of on-hired workers.
Of the on-hired workers that started new sponsorships in that time, 15.2% were employed by the mining industry, second only to the health care and social assistance sector at 22%.
Nearly all respondents said they would prefer to employ qualified Australian workers, with 91% saying they would "definitely" choose Aussies over overseas workers, and 7.7% saying they "probably" would.
The principal reason for hiring workers on the 457 visa, given by 71% of respondents, was that employers "could not source suitably qualified and experienced workers within Australia".
Coming in second, at 3.9%, was the desire to attract international skills and knowledge.
If there had not been a change to the regulation, more than 85% of survey participants said either they definitely would, or would be likely to, engage workers on new 457 sponsorships or renew existing sponsorships in the two years following October 1, 2007.
As it is, more than half the participants said they are unable or unlikely to fulfil the requirements of the on-hire labour agreement while maintaining the viability of the service they offer.
The results of the survey showed that, from the participants alone, 3586 projected 457 visas will be jeopardised by the labour agreement in the two years following the regulation change.
According to this survey the mining and health industries will be hit hardest, losing 849 and 880 sponsorships respectively.
