Occupation Ceilings for 2016-17 Migration Program - Accountants OK, Registered Nurses Up and Builders and Engineers Drop

The Department has released the SkillSelect occupation ceilings for the programme year 2016-17.

An occupation ceiling is a limit on the number of invitations that can be issued through SkillSelect each year.

An occupation ceiling is applied to:

• Skilled independent visas (subclass 189)
• Skilled regional sponsored visas (subclass 489)

You won’t be invited to apply for one of these visas if your occupation has reached its ceiling. This information is generally placed in SkillSelect throughout the programme year.

Compared to 2015-2016, occupation ceilings in 2016-2017 have not changed much. However it is noted that a few occupations have registered an increase of more than 30% to its occupation ceiling.   

The table below shows the occupation ceilings for 2016-17. An occupation highlighted in yellow indicates a decrease compared to the previous year, green means an increase and white means the occupation ceiling is remaining the same as the previous year.

Some changes include:

• ANZSCO Group 2713 Solicitors’ occupation ceiling has changed from 3252 to 5154 places; ANZSCO Group 3421 Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Mechanics' ceiling has changed from 1038 to 1701 places
• Also ANZSCO Groups 1332 Engineering Managers and 2539 Medical Practitioners register an increase in places from 1014 to 1407 and 1000 to 1315 respectively.

The occupation ceiling for Accountants appears to be increased by more than 100%. However according to further clarification from the DIBP, the occupation ceiling of 4777 places for Accountants includes the number of Accountants that will be approved for BOTH the points tested visa (SkillSelect) AND employer sponsored visa subclasses. The occupation ceiling numbers for all other occupational categories are strictly for points tested visa subclasses only.

While we have not been provided with the detailed allocation of the numbers for Accountants between the points tested SkillSelect and employer sponsored visas as yet, it might be that the occupation ceiling for Accountants in the SkillSelect programme has decreased from the previous year.

Another interesting observation is that the occupation ceiling for Registered Nurses for 2015-2016 was 13872 but only 3133 places were filled in the programme year. For the 2016-2017 programme year DIBP has increased the occupation ceiling for Registered Nurses to 16346 places, even when the previous year's lower ceiling was not met. While Australia continues to need Registered Nurses to migrate to Australia, the high English requirements for registration may stop people from receiving an Invitation to Apply for this occupation. The high occupation ceiling though, means that nursing might be a good choice of study that leads to a skill that is in demand for the SkillSelect programme.

The majority of occupations did not meet their 2015-2016 occupation ceilings. The few occupations that met their planned ceilings include: Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers, Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers, Other Engineering Professionals, ICT Business and Systems Analysts, Software and Applications Programmers and Computer Network Professionals. This means that if your nominated occupation is either Accounting, Engineering or IT related, it is very competitive to get an invitation. You will need to obtain higher points in the SkillSelect points test, to have a better chance of being selected to receive an Invitation to Apply. The higher your points, the more likely you will be selected. Alternatively if your nominated occupation is something other than the above, it should not be too difficult to receive an Invitation to Apply.

UPDATE - 29 June 2016

DIBP has clarified the ceiling value for Accountants in the 2016-17 programme year. It is now reflected as 2500 places in the table.

This information is accurate on 28 June 2016

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