Tradespeople and professionals in Australia’s construction sector may have finally had some good news with the latest data showing that job vacancies in the sector have risen for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

In its latest report, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment says job vacancies in July rose across each of the 16 categories of professional and 14 categories of tradespeople for which data is tracked across design and construction.

On the professional side, vacancies for construction managers, architects and landscape architects, civil engineers, industrial engineers and mining engineers rose from 1,570, 335, 872, 330 and 444 to 1,846, 391, 1057, 387 and 504 respectively.

On trades, meanwhile, vacancies for carpenters and joiners, painting trades workers, plumbers and electricians rose from 446, 190, 575 and 917 to 587, 268, 738 and 1,125.

Whilst the data is encouraging, it shows that vacancy activity is much more subdued compared with levels seen at the start of the COVID outbreak.

Since March, for example, vacancies for construction managers, architects, and civil engineers have fallen from 3,334, 618 and 1,727 to aforementioned levels of 1,846, 391 and 1,057.

Meanwhile, ABS data indicates that the number of payroll jobs in construction has fallen by 5.8 percent over the period from March 14 until July 25.

The latest data most likely reflects the decline in COVID related infections during May and June and the subsequent reopening of the economy.

Across all sectors, vacancies edged up by 8.9 percent during the month.

The data predates Melbourne’s move into Stage 4 lockdowns.

The latest data comes amid expectations of slowdown in the construction sector notwithstanding the sector’s status as an industry which governments hope will drive a post-COVID economic recovery.

In its latest forecast, Housing Industry Association says it expects the number of dwelling commencements in Australia to fall by 40 percent from elevated levels of 231,201 in 2018/9 to just 133,010 in 2021/22.

In its Pre-Budget submission, meanwhile, Master Builders Australia said it had has slashed its forecasts for housing starts by almost 140,000 over the next four years because of COVID and that it expects the dollar value of commercial/non-residential building work done to fall by 17.2 percent and 6.2 percent over 2020/21 and 2021/22.