The Changes To Labour Market Testing: It’s Not What You Think

For those employers familiar with sponsoring foreign nationals, the words ‘Labour Market Testing’ may cause a collective eyeroll or sigh at what can be a daunting and onerous process at times. Currently, employers looking to sponsor workers under either the Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) (subclass 482) visa or Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (provisional) (subclass 494) visa must ‘test’ the domestic labour market. In short, this means they must advertise the proposed role/s for a specified period in a specific manner.

The importance of Labour Market Testing (‘LMT’) within the application process cannot be understated as one misstep can lead to costly consequences for an employer. This is because LMT is what is known as a ‘time of application’ requirement which means that incorrect information and or lack of evidence provided at the time the application is lodged with the Department of Home Affairs will lead to an automatic refusal. In these circumstances the employer is left out of pocket of the Skilling Australians Fund (‘SAF’) levy and the loss of a potential employee of the visa process cannot be salvaged.

What are the current requirements?

Currently Migration (LIN 18/036: Period, manner and evidence of labour market testing) Instrument 2018 specifies that unless an exemption applies, Labour Market Testing (LMT) must:

Be in English
One advertisement be conducted on the Employment Department’s JobActive website
Two other advertisements run on one or more of the following:
- a recruitment platform with national reach
- print media with national reach (e.g. Newspaper)
- radio with national reach
- if an accredited sponsor – on the sponsor’s website.
Run for a period of at least four weeks
Contain the following details:
- The name of the sponsoring employer
- The salary being offered (if it is below the AUD96, 400 threshold)
- The position title or a description of the duties
- The skills required for the role

What is changing?

If you have gotten to this point in the article hoping for an announcement of a paring back to the LMT requirements, you will be sadly disappointed. No changes have been announced at this stage to the requirement to conduct LMT but rather the change will be to the manner of conducting it.

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) (referred to in LIN18/036 as the Employment Department) has announced that they will be rebranding the JobActive website as ‘Workforce Australia’ effective from 1 July 2022. The announcement indicates that Workforce Australia will be an entirely new digital platform connecting businesses and jobseekers.

Employers looking to lodge subclass 482 or subclass 494 nomination applications post-1 July 2022 must take note of the upcoming changes to ensure that their evidence meets the legislative requirements.

How Can Agape Henry Crux Help You?

If you are an employer needing assistance with an employer sponsored visa or navigating Labour Market Testing requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can book a Migration Planning Session with one of our immigration lawyers to seek professional advice by calling 02-7200 2700 or email us to book in a time at info@ahclawyers.com.

We speak fluent English, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Burmese and Malay. If these aren’t your language, we can also help you arrange an interpreter.

This article/presentation (“publication”) does not deal extensively with important topics or changes in law and is not intended to be relied upon as a substitute for legal or other advice that may be relevant to the reader's specific circumstances. If you find this publication of interest and would like to know more or wish to obtain legal advice relevant to your circumstances please contact our office.