Building Boom Creates More Construction Jobs

Australia’s building boom is no secret and as the latest figures show employment in the industry has reached yet another high. Over the last four years, the industry has seen 156,000 construction jobs added to its headcount.¹ No mean feat when you compare this to other industries.

In fact, the data suggests that our biggest gains were seen in the civil and heavy construction industry, where employment rose by 44% or 26,800 jobs.²

What is driving this growth, you ask?

- $51.2 billion spent on building and engineering in March quarter 2018³
- 227,010 new houses and units as at March 31^st 2018⁴
- $4.536 billion spent on road construction in⁵
- Mega rail projects in QLD, NSW, VIC and WA
- 684 cranes in major Australian cities ⁶

While the civil and construction industry maintains strong growth, the demand for tradies as a result is skyrocketing. Yet, we are coming up short across the board trying to meet these skill demands.

Across Australia, an estimated 84% of residential construction sites are reporting trade shortages in skills such as bricklaying, ceramic tiling, plastering, carpentry, landscaping, roofing, site preparation, joinery, painting and plumbing. ⁷

The Jobs Report, recruitment outfit Hays has found Australia’s most in-demand trade jobs are:

Carpenters: across a range of projects

Formwork carpenters: on Tier1 commercial projects and residential and infrastructure projects

Civil operators: QLD is the hotspot for these guys where civil projects are in the works

Pipelayers: on civil projects

General mobile plant operators: Let’s be honest these guys are always needed!

Skilled excavator operators: Employers are particularly looking for experienced exactor operators with certification. Click here if you need your VOC updated.

Skid Steer operators: Demand for trades with experience in, house-pad preparation

Grader operators: Road construction projects need skilled grader operators.

Cabinetmakers and Joiner: All multi-story developments at fit-out stage are looking for carpentry pros

We could not sum it up it better than Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders when she says “Recent jobs vacancy data shows the number of good, secure jobs continues to increase in the building and construction industry and we need more young people, their parents and teachers to give vocational education greater consideration.”

A career path in the building and construction industry is certainly a promising one!