Temporary Australian visa holders earn huge salaries

The survey found that majority of temporary work visa holders work as managers and high-level professionals, particularly in the mining industry.

The figures by the Australian Immigration and Citizenship Department say that nearly 90 percent of those on temporary work visa holders having work permit for Australia jobs earn nearly $100,000 as salary on an average since they are employed on senior-level positions.

The average salary of these workers has witnessed an increase of $10,000 from the salary figures of the year 2009.

The Australian immigration department said those employed in the mining industry were the highest wage earners.

The foreign mining professionals in Australia on 457 visas earn $169,000 as salary on an average. Overseas mining professionals in Australia are just 6.5 percent of those holding temporary Australian visa for skilled workers.

Majority of overseas temporary workers in Australia on 457 visas were either IT professionals or medical professionals. A large number of these workers are employed in Victoria and NSW(New South Wales).

At least one-fourth of the total job applications are from the UK while nearly 16 percent applicantions are from India. 

Nonetheless, the majority of job applications received in Western Australia (WA) were for mining industry. In 2009-10, WA had 26 percent of job applicants working in the resources sector.

Next to the overseas mining industry professionals in Australia were the professionals in the financial industry who, with an average salary of $127,000, were the second highest wage earners.

Despite a rise in the average wages earned by foreign mining industry professionals having Australian work permits, there has been a significant decline in the number of Australian visas approved in the period from January 2009 till January 2010. 

And this decline was evident clearly in the mining sector which saw a decrease in the foreign workers arriving in Australia from 3210 in the period 2008-09 to 1320 in the period 2009-10, a fall of 58.6 percent.

Also, the state of WA saw a drop of 60 percent in the number of job applications for the year 2009-10 as compared to the year 2008-09.