Global crisis has Aussies leaving the UK

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's long exodus is slowing, with expatriates flocking home as high-paying jobs in Britain, the United States and Europe wither in the financial gloom, and Australia looks to ride out the global downturn.

Travel-hungry Australians have for years sought job opportunities overseas, filling positions in British pubs and European ski fields, or boosting careers in the financial heartlands of New York, London and Tokyo.

But with the United States, Japan and much of Europe now in recession, unemployment rising and the United Nations estimating world growth will more than halve to 1 percent next year, Australians living overseas are becoming harder to find.

"When you get conditions as they are at the moment, that's going to push people back," civil engineer Matt McQuaid told the Courier-Mail newspaper as he packed bags in London for a job in Australia's Brisbane.

Until the financial tsunami struck, money lured Australia's brightest minds away. An HSBC survey in July showing around 40 percent of Aussie expats earned above 100,000 pounds a year, a stratosphere above average friends at home.

All that cash jetting back could breath new life into the flagging Australian property market, with some real estate agents pinning hopes on expats sparking a surge of homebuying.

"There is strong interest from expatriate Australians, many of them banking and finance professionals, who are looking to return home to escape the credit crunch in places like London and Singapore," said Jennifer Nielsen of Loan Market Group.

The number of people permanently leaving Australia doubled from 35,000 in 1998 to 72,000 last year. Most took up opportunities in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore or China.