As employment within the building sector soars to record heights, construction industry professionals such as site mangers, contracts administrators and forepersons/supervisors are in massive demand, a recent report says.

Releasing its April-June job market report, recruitment outfit Hays said demand for tradespeople across various states/territories is swelling amid an active market across most states and territories.

Leading the way is New South Wales, where ongoing demand is present across all project types.

Companies within that state are willing to hire candidates without projects to start them on, the report said, whilst there have even been sporadic cases of sign-on bonuses.

Demand is also strong across all levels within Victoria, where candidate shortages in Melbourne are expected to continue given a significant range of infrastructure and commercial construction projects and (for now) an extremely active residential and apartment market.

Another strong market is the ACT, as civil contractors are increasing headcounts to capitalise upon high levels of land releases and good road projects whilst those with proven experience in the residential and commercial sectors are also in demand thanks to a range of high-rise and residential mixed use projects.

Further demand can be seen in Brisbane, where activity is being driven by a booming multi-residential market and a strong market for commercial and defence projects notwithstanding the subdued nature of the civil market.

In other markets, permanent opportunities are increasing in South Australia as the commercial market gains momentum whilst publicly funded projects were creating some work in Western Australia.

The report comes as employment levels within the construction sector soar to levels which have never been seen in Australia’s history.

Over the three months to February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that Australia added 42,500 new building and engineering jobs to take the total sector workforce up to 1.115 million – up by a whopping 110,400 over the past three years.

All this is being driven by a surge in the residential sector, which has seen ground break on a whopping 457,665 new houses and apartments over the past two years.

According to Hays, the following skills are in demand:

NSW:

  • Site managers with residential and commercial experience to cater for a large number of residential projects
  • Contract administrators across all areas of construction
  • Sales and production estimators at all levels to join project home builders in Sydney
  • Project managers across residential and commercial markets
  • Building engineers and building service engineers for complex construction projects which are due to commence over the next 12 months

ACT:

  • Contract administrators for work in a buoyant commercial construction sector
  • Site managers with multi-storey residential experience to cater for a high number of residential projects
  • Civil forepersons with proven experience for work on government contracts
  • Civil supervisors for employment by civil contractors with experience in utilities

Victoria:

  • Site managers with high-rise experience and construction managers for work on large-scale inner city apartments
  • Entry level contract administrators and site managers with retail or education experience
  • Project managers with aged care/healthcare experience for work on these projects

Queensland:

  • Estimators and supervisions to work for project home builders on numerous residential building projects
  • Site managers with a defence background to work on defence related projects
  • Contract administrators for work on commercial projects

South Australia:

  • Estimators and particularly sales estimators for work on civil and residential projects
  • Commercial site managers for commencing commercial developments
  • Civil projects engineers for work on five major infrastructure projects
  • Senior contract administrators for a large number of roles
  • Residential site supervisors for both new build and repair and maintenance to work for insurance repair builders following the state’s wet winter and consequential water/hail damage

Western Australia:

Demand in WA is strongest for civil estimators to work for small and medium sized businesses, civil supervisors to work on land development projects and OHW engineers to work on construction of a large electrified rail network.

Northern Territory:

Demand within the Top End focuses around project managers in defence, civil project engineers for work on infrastructure projects and contracts administrators to work on projects.

The Hays report does not cover Tasmania.