Migrants work and earn less

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The common trope that migrants work more, are better skilled and earn more than the local population has been debunked by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In December 2022, the ABS released migrant jobs and income data, which showed that migrants earn 13% less than the median Australian income:

“Migrants held 26.3% of all jobs in Australia in 2019-20 (5.3 million jobs, worked by 3.6 million migrants)… below their 29.8% share of Australia’s population”.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.