Construction jobs in Perth WA are coming under intense pressure as the booming mining industry is luring skilled workers away from building infrastructure, threatening a shortfall of ''many thousand'' of Perth and WA construction jobs, the Civil Contractors Federation says.
The construction industry in Perth and WA employs far more workers than previously thought and is poorly understood by government, with workers quitting the industry in droves. This has prompted an inquiry into why skilled civil construction contractors leave the building industry by about 45.
As the economy and sentiment recovers after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), led by industries such as mining,and construction, jobs are in the spotlight again.
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The continued infrastructure spend, coupled with the $14.7 billion government’s Investment in Schools programme is also making skilled building and construction workers very hard to find and is only expected to get worse, which could inhibit economic and job growth in Perth and WA.
What is State of Construction Jobs in Perth and WA?The Civil Construction Occupation Review Report, which surveyed 71 companies, found the construction industry in Perth and WA employs more than 350,000 people. This figure contrasts sharply with the federation's traditional estimate that its 2000 members employ about 40,000 workers.
The federation expects the skills gap to widen as the WA boom employs more workers, saying that even if employers find new ways to retrain skilled workers ''it is clear that the unfilled vacancies will be in the range of many thousand in the future".
Over the past few months, WestJobs has averaged over 800 construction and labouring jobs WA, a significant jump on the same time last year when an average of 380 jobs were being advertised each day.
Construction and building jobs in WA are not the only sector under pressure. It is estimated that WA will need more than 500,000 skilled workers over the next decade to feed the resource industry’s planned expansion and this has brought the Government’s policy of skilled migration with the 457 visa back into the spotlight.
The skills shortage also means workers wages start to rise. The Master Builders Association and The Chamber of Commerce and Industry fear the construction and resource sector wages in Perth and WA will soar as a result of a pay deal secured by workers on the Gorgon gas project in the Pilbara recently.
Workers on the Gorgon gas project will be paid more than $150,000 a year but they will have to work 70 hours a week and for 29 days straight before having a nine day break.
The Construction Union says the working conditions on Barrow Island are harsh and the workers deserve the pay and most would not dispute that, but fears are starting to grow that this is just the beginning of a looming wages blowout as a WA skills shortage starts to bite.
It is evident that young skilled workers training to be tradespeople will finish their apprenticeships and be off up north, to get paid $2,500 to $3,000 a week, which is much more attractive than staying in Perth.
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| How the Construction Job Market Affects Other Job Sectors in Perth and WAAs construction jobs in Perth and WA come under pressure this also means that other job sectors start to show cracks. One such sector is IT and Telecommunications jobs in Perth.
All this building, company expansion, and stimulus projects will require IT infrastructure and IT support jobs.
Couple this with the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) weighing on the minds of IT employers in Perth, WA and across Australia, there is serious belief that they will not be able to fill the IT jobs created in the very near future.
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