Skills shortages are nothing new. Ten years ago, when unemployment was 5.9%, I wrote about how business groups were demanding more migration to tackle the skills shortage (they always do). And while migration is often seen as the quick fix, the latest annual occupational shortage list compiled by the Department of Jobs and Skills points to increasing diversity as a much better way to solve the problem.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Statistics revealed that in the year to August, 1 million people arrived under permanent skilled visas, temporary skilled visas and temporary work visas. That’s around 12% of the 14.4 million people employed:

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Of course, this only tells half the story, because people with such visas also leave. The 116,840 net arrival of skilled workers is a much smaller fraction of employment and should assuage those who think the migrants are “coming here, taking our jobs”:

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The Department of Jobs and Skills’ latest skills shortage list shows even with this level of migration, we still have very high skills shortages.

The good news is the level is lower than last year. Across the 916 occupations surveyed, 33% of all occupations had skill shortages at the........

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