Employment in Australia’s construction sector has surged to all-time highs, the latest data suggests.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that the number of people employed in construction throughout Australia during November stood at 1.194 million.

This was up 15,300 or 1.4 percent from the previous reading in August and represents a year-on-year increase of 31,100 or 2.7 percent compared with November 2018.

Driving the gains are Victoria and Queensland, which have added 40,700 and 23,800 workers over the past year to take their overall construction payrolls to 337,600 and 247,900 respectively (not seasonally adjusted).

This has more than offset the loss of 32,500 jobs in New South Wales, whose construction workforce eased from all-time highs of 396,000 in November 2018 to still historically elevated levels of 363,500 in November last year.

Unsurprisingly, the gains are being driven by stronger employment in civil construction and construction services amid record levels of investment in new infrastructure.

Over the year to November, the number of people employed in ‘construction services’ surged by 61,900 from 715,000 to 776,900.

That in civil and heavy engineering construction increased by 9.6 percent or 9,600 to 108,800 and has grown over the past three years by 47,800.

Employment in ‘building construction’, however, eased by 37,800 from record highs of 341,100 in November 2018 to 303,300 in November last year.

That said, building construction employment remains higher than its level five years ago in November 2014 by almost 100,000 or 47.4 percent – a phenomenon which reflects that building activity levels remain elevated by historic standards despite having eased from recent peaks.

Overall, the construction sector has added a net of 212,500 new positions over the past seven years.

Whilst employment levels are no doubt high, the latest data should be read with caution as other numbers suggest that the market for construction workers is softening.

Data from the Department of Small Business and Jobs, for example, indicates that job vacancies in design and construction are waning.

Over the year to November, vacancies for construction managers, architects/landscape architects, interior designers and civil engineers fell from 4,220 to 3,527, 826 to 674, 495 to 198 and 2,158 to 1,828 respectively.

Over that same period, those for tradespeople such as carpenters/joiners, plumbers and electricians declined from 988 to 702, 841 to 758 and 2,240 to 1,957.

At a broader level, as we move into the next decade, the data provides an interesting perspective on ideas about construction and other sectors being ‘old economy’.

Wind back to the ‘dot-com’ boom near the turn of the century and construction along with other ‘old economy’ sectors were seen to offer lower growth profiles and more restricted opportunities compared with ‘new economy’ sectors such as finance, information technology and professional services.

Two decades on, things have not turned out this way.

To be sure, over the twenty years from November 1999 to November 2019, employment in ‘old economy’ sectors declined by one quarter in agriculture and more than ten percent in manufacturing.

In construction, however, employment numbers have surged by 75 percent or more than half a million (514,000) over the same period.

Another ‘old economy’ sector of mining has seen employment more than triple from 80,100 to 251,100.

At the same time, the number of jobs available in information, media and telecommunications – supposedly the ‘star’ of the new economy – increased by just 6,500 or 3.2 percent.

Employment in another ‘new economy’ darling of finance and insurance grew by 47 percent or 146,000 – a respectable number but still trailing growth in ‘old economy’ sectors of mining and construction.

One area where construction has not progressed, however, is the gender imbalance of its workforce.

In November 1999, the ratio of men to women employed in Australia’s construction sector stood at roughly seven to one (600,600 men and 89,800 women).

Two decades on with 1.041 million men and 147,500 women employed in construction as at November 2019, those ratios remain almost identical.