Thousands of jobs for unskilled

Tens of thousands of tradespeople, semi-skilled workers and labourers can expect to find jobs in Western Australia’s resources industry in the next decade, according to an independent study.

A study by the National Institute of Labour Studies shows that many of the jobs to be created on mining projects until 2020 will not require specialist skills: about 38,000 new jobs would open up for unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

The report comes as the nation’s biggest resources project, the $43 billion Gorgon gas development off the Pilbara coast, prepares to start scouring the country for thousands of low-skilled labourers, cooks and cleaners.

The Australian revealed this week that Tony Abbott had proposed banning the dole for people under 30 in a bid to encourage people to fill skills shortages emerging in the resources sector.

The plan was attacked by the Rudd government and some in the resources sector, who argued that the unemployed were not suited to many of the specialist roles on big projects.

But a recruitment firm appointed to oversee hiring for the Gorgon project yesterday cautiously backed Mr Abbott’s plan, saying Gorgon would need a wide range of workers and the jobs would need to be filled from around Australia.

“There will be roles at Gorgon at the blue-collar end where they can put those people on,” Stellar Recruitment’s Perth manager Scott Alexander said.

“There will be thousands of those roles where you don’t have to have specific experience.

“Labourers, cleaners, cooks and those sorts of role — they will have to be filled for this project.”

Mr Alexander said Gorgon would also suck workers from other mining and construction projects in WA, exacerbating the looming labour shortages.

“Gorgon has such a big profile that people want to work on that job,” he said.

“It will create holes on all the other projects, on all these other mines sites which will need to be filled.”

The 2008 study shows that the mining industry over the next 10 years would need about 31,000 extra tradespeople, 30,000 semi-skilled workers and 8000 labourers.

Western Australia accounts for 55 per cent of the national growth in demand for labour in that period.