Biotechnology Careers in Australia

Australia is the world’s sixth-largest country and is on an island continent. While English is the official language, many other languages are spoken both at home and in the social sphere, and one in four Australians have English as their second language rather than their first. This is due in part to the fact that Australia is an incredibly multicultural country with migrants from some 200 countries.

Over the last decade, Australia has enjoyed a relatively low rate of unemployment. In recent years Australia has needed to import a range of skilled and semi-skilled labor to meet labor shortages throughout the country and to serve the growing economy. Workers from around the world have come to fill all sorts of jobs, from professional vacancies in areas such as accounting, to positions in more labor-intensive industries such as welding, building and construction, and in various roles in the service sector.

According to Trading Economics, “the unemployment rate in Australia was reported at 5.1 percent in August of 2012. Historically, from 1978 until 2012, Australia’s unemployment rate averaged 6.98 percent, reaching an all time high of 10.90 percent in December of 1992 and a record low of 4.00 Percent in February of 2008.”

Job seekers can find opportunities in all major cities, although certain regions are known for a particular area of expertise, due to their respective histories and natural assets. For example, Melbourne is home to Australia’s financial services, biotechnology, and manufacturing centers; while Perth and Brisbane are renowned for their resources and mining. Construction and building jobs can be found throughout Australia, though Brisbane, Perth, and Darwin seem to have the most growth in this sector. On the other hand, Victoria is often recognized as Australia’s “bread-basket” thanks to the impressive fact that about 33 percent of Australia’s agricultural exports come from this part of the country.

Top 5 Tips for Your Job Search:

1. Know Where to Look

The process of finding work in Australia is not unlike that of many Western nations, including the U.S., Canada, the UK, and many European countries.

Five great ways to identify vacancies are:

• Government and NGO assistance through job agencies
• Major city newspapers, which traditionally advertise for positions of all levels in their Saturday edition
• Job web sites and job boards
• Recruitment agencies, for both temporary and permanent positions
• Headhunters, usually for industry-specific and/or senior positions
• Informal and formal networks for positions that never get advertised