一本教会你“做对”题的6级阅读书 day9 passage4

Passage 4 Australia’s Skills Shortage
澳大利亚技工短缺 《经济学人》

When Jetstar, a low-cost carrier,
revealed recently that it was planning to hire
more than 75 pilots from Britain, America and South Africa,
it was seeking a solution to a problem facing many employers across the country:
a severe shortage of skilled labor.
With an economy in its 17th year of uninterrupted growth,
Australia's skills shortage has never been worse.
People are crying out for plumbers, doctors and nurses.
In states that are booming thanks to a mining bonanza-Western Australia,
Queensland and South Australia-engineers,
surveyors and truck drivers are in short supply.
One state-owned water authority complains
that it is losing truckers to mining companies offering A$100,000 ($96,000)
[01:07]a year-more than double their previous salary.
[01:12]In many rich countries where immigration
[01:15]is a politically sensitive matter-America,
[01:19]Britain and Ireland-the number of immigrants seems to be falling
[01:24]as the economy turns down. Not in Australia. The Labor government,
[01:31]under Kevin Rudd,
[01:33]is looking to increase the numbers of foreigners allowed to settle.
[01:39]On May 13th his government said that
[01:43]Australia would take 190,300 immigrants next year, a rise of 25% on this year.
[01:55]The biggest jump comes in the proportion of those chosen
[01:59]for their skills in a booming economy:
[02:02]at 133,500 they now account for a record 70% of the total intake.
[02:11]These so-called "permanent" settlers tell only a part of the story.
[02:17]With another 100,000 arrivals expected under a short-term visa scheme
[02:23]that allows employers to fill urgent job vacancies from outside Australia,
[02:30]the total intake is likely to be closer to 300,000.
[02:35]Other changes will make still more foreigners available for work.
[02:40]That approach, says Chris Evans, the immigration minister,
[02:44]was designed for a world in which people did not move much.
[02:49]Today, he argues, the country needs a policy fit for a world
[02:54]in which people move often for work.
[02:57]He points out that 500,000 people with "work rights" entered Australia last year:
[03:05]students and holiday-makers, as well as those on work visas.
[03:10]And the country still suffers skilled-labor bottlenecks.
[03:15] Australia is in some respects paying a price for failing to invest in skills
[03:21]and infrastructure to meet the demands of a "once-in-50-years boom".
[03:27]Not long ago, the sight of a Labor government bowing to demands from bosses
[03:34]and opening the gates to foreign workers would have produced howls of anguish
[03:39]from unions. Not now. With unemployment at a 30-year low,
[03:46]falling union membership and an ageing domestic workforce,
[03:50]the Rudd government can afford to be bold about using immigration
[03:55]as a tool of economic management.
[03:58]Mr. Evans says that from now on immigration will play a bigger role
[04:04]in the "structure of Australia's workforce".
[04:07]He can probably count on Australians tolerating
[04:10]that so long as the boom continues.