The release of a report today by Engineers Australia has confirmed that while all engineering disciplines experienced fewer shortages than in the past, the shortages experienced by companies remained comparatively high.

No engineering discipline was reported to be in surplus and the highest shortages were in the key mainstream disciplines of civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and structural engineering.

In releasing The Engineering Profession – A statistical overview 2010, the Chief Executive of Engineers Australia, Peter Taylor, said, “The domestic supply of new engineering graduates has not been able to keep pace with increases in the demand for engineers for many years.

“For well over a decade the number of domestic engineering graduates flat-lined at around 5000 a year and it is only in the last few years that we have seen a modest increase to about 6000 per year.

“While the initiatives through Government policies to deal with shortages have increased the number of new fully funded engineering places in universities and TAFEs, and despite the immigration of suitably qualified engineers, the shortage of engineers remains an acute problem for Australia now and well into the future.”

Engineers Australia’s has undertaken closer research with companies since 2006. During this period, the Australian economy experienced strong economic growth, which then was impacted by the global financial crisis. These impacts began to be felt in 2008 and were widespread during 2009. Between 2006 and 2008 over 70% of companies reported that they had experienced professional engineer skill shortages during the preceding year.

Even at the height of the GFC in the 2009, 53% of companies still reported they had experienced professional engineer skill shortages. The fallout from the GFC provided no significant relief to the on-going gap between supply and demand for engineers to support Australia’s economic opportunities.

“With all indicators showing a return to robust economic expansion for Australia the long-term, it remains very disturbing that there is no real end in sight to delivering an adequate engineering skills base across Australia to match demands for maintenance of existing infrastructure, increasing population and economic expansion.

“Part of the longer-term solution is to focus in the primary and secondary classrooms where students need to be both drawn to an engineering career, and supported with the skills sets of maths and science subjects, to dramatically increase our domestic engineering numbers,” Peter Taylor said.

The full report is available at www.engineersaustralia.org.au/statistical-overview

Media Contact: John Bright - 0407 234 490 / jbright@engineersaustralia.org.au
Engineers Australia is the common name of the Institution of Engineers, Australia with a membership 93,000.