Engineers Australia delves into the data to find out where engineering jobs are located. This article draws on Engineers Australia’s September Engineering Vacancy Report.
Overview of results
Over the course of 2017, engineering vacancies have been growing steadily. In the first nine months, engineering vacancies in Australia have grown 14.4 percent, and that includes growth of 3.7 percent in the last three months. In September 2017 there were 3,783 engineering vacancies recorded in Australia, which has grown strongly from the number of 2,414 that was recorded at the same time two years ago.
National engineering vacancies had recently bottomed out after two periods of extraordinary demand: during 2008 and, following the worst of the Global Financial Crisis, in 2011. At its peak in September 2008, there were over 13,000 engineering vacancies recorded in that month alone.
During 2013, engineering vacancies continued a slide in numbers, bottoming out in January 2015 when only 2,280 engineering vacancies were recorded. They remained low until signs of growth appeared in late 2016.
The growth seen over the last 12 months has been slower than in the previous booms, however, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The two large growth periods seen in the past were extreme and led to painful adjustment periods in the engineering labour market later on.
Also, in the past, the boom periods saw growth in jurisdictions and in engineering occupations which were somewhat dependent on the resources sector. The pattern which is emerging today is much more in standing with normal growth where vacancies are distributed throughout the states and territories. Every state and territory has recorded larger vacancy numbers over a 12-month period.
State by state
New South Wales has the highest number of engineering vacancies in the nation, with over 1,300 engineering vacancies recorded in September 2017. In New South Wales engineering vacancies grew strongly throughout the second half of 2016, slowing down at the beginning of 2017, and in the last three months, numbers have fallen by 1.4 percent.
Most of the growth in recent months has been in Victoria and Queensland. Victoria recorded 900 engineering vacancies in September, growing more than 20 percent in the course of 2017 and 11 percent in the last three months alone. Queensland recorded over 700 engineering vacancies in September, growing 25.7 percent since January, and growing 9.4 percent in the last three months.
The other big state, Western Australia, has also seen strong growth in engineering vacancies over the course of 2017, climbing to more than 580 engineering vacancies in September. This is growth of 30.7 percent since January, however, it has slowed slightly in recent months with 3.9 percent growth in the last three months. South Australia has seen strong growth in the last nine months with growth of 18.6 percent in this time, recording just over 160 vacancies for the month of September.
The smaller jurisdictions of Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have recorded mixed results over 2017. Tasmania has seen growth of 38.8 percent from January to September, and the Northern Territory has seen growth of 28.5 percent. Meanwhile in the ACT engineering vacancies have fallen significantly by 13.5 percent.
It must be remembered that these three jurisdictions often record much more variable growth rates due to the small base number of engineering vacancies recorded each month.
Vacancies by discipline
The majority of engineering vacancies recorded in Australia are for civil engineering occupations. They are most prevalent in the two largest states of New South Wales and Victoria. In Victoria, civil engineering vacancies are pushing overall engineering vacancy numbers in the state. Civil engineering occupations are also the majority of engineering vacancies in South Australia and Tasmania.
In Queensland and the Northern Territory, there are also high numbers of civil engineering vacancies, followed by mining engineering occupation vacancies. In Western Australia, Mining engineering vacancies make up the majority of engineering vacancies in the state, and these numbers have grown strongly since the beginning of 2017. In the ACT civil engineering vacancies are split fairly evenly between ICT support and test engineering, however, it is difficult to determine how many of the ICT occupations are engineering-specific.
Other engineering occupations such as industrial and mechanical engineering vacancies have grown in 2017, with growth in Victoria and Western Australia. Electrical engineering vacancies have also continued to grow throughout 2017 with higher numbers seen in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
Looking to the future
Overall there have been positive signs of growth in the engineering job market since the middle of 2016. The growth seen in the number of engineering job vacancies has been slow but steady, with growth seen in all jurisdictions and through a wide range of engineering occupations.
The recent slow-down of numbers in New South Wales and the significant fall in the ACT will be interesting to follow for the final few months of 2017. It will be interesting to see if this is perhaps a small road bump in continued growth, or if it is signalling a notable stall in engineering work in New South Wales in comparison to continued growth in the other major states.
The data in context
To prepare this article and the accompanying report, Engineers Australia has investigated the Department of Employment’s September 2017 Vacancies Report to analyse engineering vacancy trends in Australia, and in each of the states and territories.
The Department’s report is based on a count of online job advertisements listed on career sites during the month of September. It does not include jobs that are advertised on job boards, employer websites, newspapers or through word of mouth. This means that the numbers analysed should be viewed in trend terms only.
Job vacancies are a key indicator of unmet demand for labour in the economy(1). When the demand for labour is strong, the level of vacancies will also generally rise(2). Analysing the movements in vacancy numbers through the Department’s report gives us a broad indication of which direction the engineering labour market is heading.
Engineers Australia’s September Engineering Vacancy Report
(1) Edwards. K, and Gustafsson. L, 2013. Reserve Bank of Australia, Bulletin, September Quarter, Indicators of Labour Demand. www.rba.gov.au
(2) The Beveridge Curve