SYDNEY—Australia's economic boom is spurring a steady stream of unexpected visitors looking for work: Americans.
U.S. citizens are heading to Australia in small but growing numbers as near-10% unemployment at home drives more to look for jobs Down Under, where China's thirst for iron ore and energy is transforming the Pacific nation into an economic powerhouse.
A bricklaying student from Silver Trowel, in baseball cap, apprentices on a building project in Western Australia, where workers are in short supply.
Daniel Davila, a 23-year-old timber floorer from Camarillo, Calif.—a Los Angeles suburb knee-deep in the Golden State's housing dust bowl—made the 14-hour move across the Pacific two years ago. He had been forced to take a job stocking shelves at a local grocery store for $8.90 an hour when he couldn't get work installing floors.
On a good day in Australia, he now makes as much as 50 Australian dollars (US$50.21) an hour—about twice the going rate for a typical flooring job in the U.S. He plans to start his own flooring business.
"I can make what I did in a week in the U.S. in less than a day here," said Mr. Davila, who lives near the mining boom town of Perth, in Western Australia.
Australian government figures show just under 7,000 Americans currently working on long-term visas, an 80% jump over the past five years. U.S. citizens are now the third-largest group applying for so-called 457 work visas, after British and Indian nationals. Americans with degrees in areas such as accounting or mine engineering, as well as other skilled workers, can obtain a nonrenewable permit for as much as a three-year stay. After that, they can apply for the renewable 457, which grants up to a four-year stay.
The need for workers is particularly pressing in Western Australia. The mining state's unemployment rate was 4.5% in November, below the national average of 5.2%. Drivers of heavy trucks can pull in six-figure salaries, recruiters say, while experienced crane operators can earn hundreds of thousands a year. Luring skilled workers is a shift for Australia, which historically sent many of its most highly educated to the U.S. and Europe, according to migration data.
Far more foreigners still move to the U.S. each year than it loses in population. Only about 45,000 native-born Americans move abroad annually, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's latest estimates, released in early December. Close to 250,000 foreign-born residents of the U.S. leave the country each year as well. There doesn't appear to be an upward trend in Americans moving overseas. In contrast, more than 1.1 million foreigners migrated to the U.S. in 2010, the bureau estimates. About 377,000 foreigners moved to Australia this year, and 471,000 last year.
Australia's labor laws don't make it easy for Americans to jump on a plane and start working. Between paying for Australian trade schools to get the skilled worker's degree required to practice his trade here and getting the appropriate visas, Mr. Davila estimates staying in Australia has cost him about $40,000. Longer-term 457 visa hopefuls must be sponsored by a company with visas for in-demand jobs, such as nurses, builders and engineers, and prove they meet Australia's demandingcriteria.
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Australia needs immigrants to augment its relatively small population of 22 million, as economic growth creates skills gaps that could constrain its mining and investment boom. "The real critical issue for delivering all this infrastructure Australia needs is skilled labor, particularly out west," in mining regions, said Shane Lee, senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. Mr. Lee estimates the country needs to spend about $600 billion on infrastructure over the next six years, creating even more demand for such jobs.
Recruiters like Silver Trowel specialize in bringing skilled Americans to Australia for jobs in mining and construction. The firm, based in Perth is budgeting $15,000 to $20,000 next year for newspaper and other direct advertising campaigns in the U.S. Last month, it paid $20,000 to take part in a job fair at a midtown Manhattan hotel. "Australia is crying out for Americans to learn, earn and live in Australia," the company boasted at the fair and on its website.
An Australian-approved skilled worker's degree from Silver Trowel costs job seekers about $29,000, with health care, living and other expenses adding as much as $10,000 to the total cost. Silver Trowel runs the classes itself; most degrees take about two years.
The costs have discouraged some Americans, some people in the training industry say. Silver Trowel has placed only a few in work this year. "The American market is very new to a lot of us," said Anne Skerratt, a director with Silver Trowel. "But give it a year of marketing in the climate now and I know it will be a strong market for us."
Visa applications in the state of Western Australia jumped 15% in the year ended May 30, official data show. The federal government is examining a new visa strictly for mining. "The historically high levels of the terms of trade and the enormous pipeline investment means we have to think about labor supply," says Finance Minister Penny Wong. "A sensible skilled migration program has been a position that both parties of government in Australia have managed and put in place when the economy has needed it."
For those who can't get work immediately, studying in Australia in the hope of landing a well-paid job is increasingly attractive. The number of U.S. citizens attending universities here has jumped nearly 10% in the past two years, after declining steadily for the previous decade, according to the Department of Immigration. The uptick comes as the resources boom has pushed the Australian dollar up 45% against the U.S. dollar over the same period, making it even more expensive for Americans to study there.
For Americans like Garrett Mclaughlin, the opportunities outweigh the difficulties. The 29-year-old former associate at New York hedge fund Zweig-DiMenna moved to Sydney to study for a master's degree in business administration, figuring that was the best way to get here without a corporate transfer. He is now entering his final semester at the Australian Graduate School of Management and says he has already had several job offers.
"It's hard to ignore that Australia seems to be going one way and America the opposite," said Mr. Mclaughlin.
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