Shortage of skills building

Engineers are the most sought after professionals, according to latest figures looking at the Australian skills shortage.

Only 41 per cent of engineering vacancies were filled within six weeks of being advertised during the 12 months to June this year.

That’s down 10 percentage points in the past year, figures from the Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations show.

“There remains a continuing shortage of professional engineers and other tertiary-qualified engineering practitioners,” Engineers Australia state president Dennis Wogan says.

“We estimate that the current shortage of engineers in Australia is over 20,000 and growing.”

He blames part of the shortage on increasing demand due to the number of infrastructure projects happening across Australia.

But he expects the problem to get worse because many engineers are due to retire over the next decade and there’s not enough graduates coming through to meet future demand.

Wogan says people should be encouraged to study engineering or related degrees, particularly women.

“Currently only about 10 per cent of the Engineers Australia membership is female, but there are some encouraging signs for the future by the increase in the numbers of females now taking up engineering degrees in the tertiary sector,” he says.

The DEEWR reports says the advertised jobs that have been easiest to fill in the 12 months to June have been in accountancy and school teaching. Both recorded success rates of more than 80 per cent of vacancies filled during the first six weeks of being advertised.

The biggest year-on-year fall was in social professions – such as counsellors, social workers and clinical psychologists – which was down 22 points, with only 54 per cent of vacancies filled within the set time.

Jobs in automotive trades were also harder to fill, down 20 points with just 42 per cent of jobs filled on time.

Overall, Queensland was able to fill 62 per cent of jobs within six weeks of being advertised across the 130 skilled occupations measured by DEEWR.

That’s down only 2 points on the previous 12 months and places Queensland in fifth place behind Tasmania (63 per cent), Victoria (65) , NSW (66) and South Australia (67).

The Federal Government has pledged to spend $3 billion over the next six years on a number of initiatives to address the skills shortage.

Darren Buchanan, state regional director for recruitment firm Hays, says there are signs of a skills shortage in some sectors although the state is still suffering a relatively higher unemployment rate at 5.2 per cent, above a national figure of 4.9 per cent.

“Having a skill shortage shows that the economy is going forward,” Buchanan says.

“It’s great for candidates but not so great for employers.”

There is still a “huge demand” in the mining, oil and gas sectors and he agrees engineering candidates are in short supply, especially civil engineers.

“Traditional engineering will continue to experience skill shortages,” Buchanan says.

Sinead Hourigan, Brisbane director for recruitment firm Robert Walters, says demand exists for candidates with engineering skills and experience working on major projects.

“The areas where we are seeing demand are in rail engineering,” Hourigan says. “There’s quite a lot of stuff happening across Queensland and other places.”

Despite demand for candidates in the resources sector, she says future demand for engineers will tilt towards greener options. “There’s always going to be a market there but I would suggest that people start looking to study with a bent towards renewable energy,” she says.

But what use is a skills shortage to candidates who don’t have the skills in the areas of demand?

U&U partner Sean Johnson says a skill shortage in one area can lead to opportunities in other areas.

“There are supplementary jobs that you can apply for,” he says.

Mining and construction projects need more than the people with the technical skills to manage and operate machinery. Johnson says they also need people with legal and financial knowledge related to the projects. Then there’s the office support and other jobs needed to support those in a major project.