Engineering Recruitment, Engineers Recruitment, Engineering Employment, Engineering Professionals, Engineering Jobs, WA, Australia

The growing skills shortage is forcing more and more West Australian employers to look overseas to secure skilled workers.

30 November 2011

The strength of the resources sector has clearly been the principal driver behind the growth of the state’s economy for the past decade. However, with about $210 billion worth of resources and infrastructure projects either committed or in the pipeline, continued growth is making it increasingly difficult for many industries to fill employment vacancies. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA suggests that with the current rate of population growth, more than 488,000 workers will be required by 2020.

Of that figure only 275,000 workers would be provided through natural population growth and migration, indicating a deficit of more than 200,000 workers by 2020. However, the challenge of meeting WA’s labour needs is not only securing this number of workers, but also ensuring an adequate skills mix.

The shortages of skilled labour have become most apparent in the engineering, building and health sectors. The report highlighted shortages across the entire sector with civil, structural, electrical and mechanical engineers in high demand. While on average there were seven applicants per vacancy in the engineering sector, only one of the seven was deemed suitably experienced for the job concerned. In addition, the majority of employers indicated they were looking for engineers with at least five years of post-university experience.

The increase in infrastructure associated with the mining boom has meant there has been a real increase in the demand for those engineering skills, and WA has been hardest hit out of all the states. Along with the recent amendments to 457 visa conditions, Perth has recently been deemed a regional employment hardship area, which will allow employers to utilise the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.

While there appears to be no shortage of trade workers in the building sector, Master Builders of WA says they expected problems to arise in this area within 18 to 24 months. When both residential and commercial property begin to turn around, which will be at the time a number of large resource projects like Wheatstone and Pluto are steaming ahead, both are going to require massive numbers of construction workers.

Excerpt from: WA Business News (www.wabusinessnews.com.au), 23 November 2011

Note from the editor: The issue of skills shortages facing Australia, and Western Australia in particular, were addressed in a talk which I delivered on trends in engineering and technical careers during a career development breakfast seminar in Perth a few months ago. The seminar set out to look at the possible impact on particular industries and evaluate which jobs are in high demand and where. During the seminar, "Where to for Engineering Professionals in 2012?" I shed some light on the current career climate and emerging trends in the engineering employment market, with a focus on WA.