Continuous survey of Australia's migrants: cohort 1 report – August 2014

This study of almost nine thousand recent migrants examines their labour market integration. Executive summary Between October and December 2013, almost nine thousand recent migrants participated in the first Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants (CSAM) since 2011. This cohort – known as CSAM Cohort 1 – comprised Skill Stream Primary Applicants and their Migrating Unit Spouses plus Partner Migrants who arrived in Australia, or received a permanent or provisional visa onshore around six months earlier. In this report we look at the outcomes of CSAM Cohort 1 at this six-month stage of settlement, focusing on their labour market integration. Future reports will show how these outcomes change in the ensuing 12 months and will describe the early outcomes of newer migrant cohorts. The key finding of this report was that Skill Stream Primary Applicants achieved good employment outcomes at the six-month stage of settlement. This included a moderate unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent, a very high participation rate of 95.6 per cent, high income levels and high rates of employment in highly-skilled and full-time work. Skill Stream Primary Applicants outperformed the general population on most of these measures. Employment outcomes (particularly the unemployment rate) of Migrating Unit Spouses and Partner Migrants were generally not as good. This is not unexpected, given that these migrants were not selected for migration on the basis of their employment prospects. However, what is encouraging is a participation rate for these groups that is substantially higher than the general Australian population, and indicative of an interest in finding work. Among Skill Stream Primary Applicants, Employer Sponsored migrants achieved the best employment outcomes – just a 1 per cent unemployment rate, with almost all working full-time in skilled work. Onshore Independent migrants and State/Territory Nominated migrants also achieved positive employment outcomes, albeit to a lesser extent. Employed Skill Stream Primary Applicants were most likely to be working in Professional fields – that is, in jobs requiring at least a Bachelor’s degree – and in the Health care and social assistance industry. Their likelihood of professional employment was about twice that of the Australian workforce. There was also strong alignment with existing skills, with the majority working in their nominated field, or in a field with a similar or higher skill level. Skill Stream Primary Applicants were also well-educated – nine-in-ten had at least one post-school qualification – with over half having an Australian qualification and three-quarters holding a qualification from overseas. Bachelor degrees, followed by Master degrees, were the most popular qualifications obtained by skilled migrants. The field of study for qualifications were largely consistent with the most common occupations of migrants, which shows most skilled migrants are utilising their skills in Australia. Consistent with these outcomes, Skill Stream Primary Applicants were, on average, employed for longer and held more jobs in the previous 12 months compared to other migrant categories. More than eight-in-ten migrants were from countries where English was not the main language spoken. Despite this, almost nine-in-ten migrants reported high levels of spoken English – an important pre-requisite to finding work. Skill Stream Primary Applicants migrated to Australia mostly to improve their future for themselves and their family or for economic opportunities. As expected, Partner Migrants migrated to join family in Australia. Consistent with this different focus, Migrating Unit Spouses and Partner Migrants were more likely to have provided unpaid care and assistance for family members and children

Spur-reduction techniques for PLLs using sub-sampling phase detection

A low-spur sub-sampling PLL exploits an amplitude-controlled charge pump which is immune to current source mismatch. A DLL/PLL dual-loop architecture and buffering reduces the disturbance of the sampler to the VCO. The 2.2GHz PLL in 0.18-μm CMOS achieves -121dBc/Hz in-band phase noise at 200kHz and consumes 3.8mW. The worst-case reference spur measured on 20 samples is -80dBc.\u

When general skills are not enough: the influence of recent shifts in Australian skilled migration policy on migrant employment outcomes

This report focusses on the effects on migrant labour market outcomes of Australia’s recent shift from a points-based “supply driven” model that favoured independent General Skilled Migrants, to a “hybrid model” that balances supply driven migration against Employer Sponsored “demand driven” migration. Abstract Although many countries are now using skilled migration to offset declining fertility and increased longevity, there is thin empirical evidence concerning the effects of alternative approaches to managing the skilled migrant intake. This study focusses on the effects on migrant labour market outcomes of Australia’s recent shift from a points-based “supply driven” model that favoured independent General Skilled Migrants, to a “hybrid model” that balances supply driven migration against Employer Sponsored “demand driven” migration. We find that the shift to a hybrid model of skilled migration resulted in substantively improved rates of employment amongst skilled migrants without an accompanying deterioration in the average distribution of occupational outcomes. &nbsp

Entry & Exit: The Lifecyle of a Hedge Fund

Using data from the TASS/Tremont hedge fund database, this article performs an empirical analysis of the evolution of the hedge fund industry within an industrial organization framework.Hedge Funds, Entry, Exit, Evolution, Hedge Fund Performance, Hedge Fund Styles, Incumbents, Entrants, Lifecyle, Competition, Market for Ideas,

Enhancement of the electronic contribution to the low temperature specific heat of Fe/Cr magnetic multilayer

We measured the low temperature specific heat of a sputtered $(Fe_{23\AA}/Cr_{12\AA})_{33}$ magnetic multilayer, as well as separate $1000\AA$ thick Fe and Cr films. Magnetoresistance and magnetization measurements on the multilayer demonstrated antiparallel coupling between the Fe layers. Using microcalorimeters made in our group, we measured the specific heat for $4<T<30 K$ and in magnetic fields up to $8 T$ for the multilayer. The low temperature electronic specific heat coefficient of the multilayer in the temperature range $4<T<14 K$ is $\gamma_{ML}=8.4 mJ/K^{2}g-at$. This is significantly larger than that measured for the Fe or Cr films (5.4 and $3.5 mJ/K^{2}mol$ respectively). No magnetic field dependence of $\gamma_{ML}$ was observed up to $8 T$. These results can be explained by a softening of the phonon modes observed in the same data and the presence of an Fe-Cr alloy phase at the interfaces.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure