( Reuters ) - Australia said on Sunday it was relaxing its migration program to allow more skilled workers into the country where the jobless rate is at a three-decade low and most companies face a labor shortage.
The new centre-left Labor government said it was expanding the skilled migration program by 6,000 in 2007-08, bringing the total number of visas to 108,500.
"Employer-sponsored visas are the highest priority because they put a migrant worker directly into a skilled job," Chris Evans, Immigration and Citizenship minister, said in a statement.
The government will also expand the working holiday visa program for young people, a move which is expected to benefit the tourism and construction industries.
Australia is a nation of migrants, with nearly one-in-four of the country's 21 million people born overseas. The booming economy, which has been growing at more than 4 percent annually, is facing a huge shortage of skilled labor, pushing up wages and stoking inflationary pressures.
The unemployment rate has been under 5 percent since 2006 and figures out last week showed it falling to a fresh 33-year low of 4.1 percent in January.
Core inflation in Australia was running at a 16-year high of 3.6 percent last quarter, forcing the central bank to hike interest rates to an 11-year high of 7 percent earlier this month. Markets are expecting one more rate hike in March as it steps up its fight to curb inflation.
Evans said the latest package had the potential to provide thousands of additional workers in the short term and would help address inflationary pressures.