[Source: BBC]

Australia is raising its cap on permanent migration for the first time in a decade to help fill massive workforce shortages.

It will take up to 195,000 people this financial year – an increase of 35,000.

The pandemic and Australia’s tough border policies have exacerbated staffing gaps in many sectors.

Workers from countries including China, India and the UK – Australia’s top sources of migration – are needed to fill them, the government says.

There are more than 480,000 job vacancies across the country, but with unemployment at an almost 50-year low, employers are struggling to fill the gaps.

The hospitality, healthcare, agriculture and skilled trade industries have been particularly hard hit.