Australia Adds 51,700 Construction Jobs In Three Months

15 Dec 2012

While it is more than likely a statistical anomaly, the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the construction industry in Australia added a total of 51,700 full and part-time jobs over the three months to November, taking the number of people employed in the industry throughout the country from 964,000 to 1.016 million.

The creation of 32,300 full time jobs took the number of people employed on a full-time basis to 871,900, while the addition of 19,400 jobs took part-time employment numbers to 143,800.

Caution, however, should be exercised prior to the adoption of an overly positive reading of the numbers, as numbers for the previous quarter were extremely low and quarterly movements are influenced by seasonal factors.

Furthermore, overall numbers are still down 21,400 compared with the same quarter last year and remain low by recent historic standards.

Moreover, in the residential construction sector at least, the latest HIA Trades Report shows an oversupply of almost every category of trade, with landscapers being particularly hard hit, and Performance of Construction Index reports have shown declines in employment numbers throughout the industry on a consistent basis throughout the past two years.

In short, it is still a tough market for workers.

Going forward, though mining construction is expected to peak in the next year or two and commercial building is expected to remain weak, an anticipated recovery of modest proportions in residential building should help to ease conditions for workers and tradespeople a little bit in that sector.

Over the longer term, there are fears of a shortage of skilled labour toward the middle of the decade as building activity returns to normal and the low number of apprentices coming through at the moment starts to bite.

In terms of states, Victoria (up 33,780) and Queensland (up 13,590) accounted for almost all of the jobs growth over the past quarter, with gains in Victoria following an abnormally low result in the previous quarter.

On a year-on-year basis, Western Australia (up six per cent) and the Northern Territory (up seven per cent) appear to be the strongest markets while Tasmania (down 13 per cent) and the Australian Capital Territory registered the weakest results.

Source: http://designbuildsource.com.au/51700-australian-construction-jobs-added-in-3-months