Mining a Top Five Industry for Australian Job Growth

Online recruitment portal SEEK has reported the mining, resources and energy sector as one of the five biggest industries for job growth over the past year.

The recruiter revealed the information in its March 2019 employment report, which showed that despite an overall 4.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in advertised jobs across all industries in Australia, mining showed 1.4 per cent growth.

SEEK referred to the growth as “modest” when compared to previous years. Tasmania and Western Australia were the only states showing positive growth in job advertisements over the year from March 2018 to March 2019.

Despite the overall slowdown, however, advertised salaries showed growth across all states and territories.

Tasmania posting the strongest salary growth at 4.8 per cent, although it should be noted that Tasmania’s overall average salary was still the lowest among the states and territories listed at $77,719.

Western Australia was the highest, with an average salary of $89,956, closely followed by the Australian Capital Territory at $89,320 and New South Wales at $89,240.

Queensland and Victoria shared joint second place for salary growth at 3 per cent each. NSW stood at 2.8 per cent, Western Australia 2.7 per cent, South Australia at 1.8 per cent and the Northern Territory in last place at 0.4 per cent.

While the SEEK report shows higher job growth for WA than Queensland on the whole, a DPF Mining and Resources Job Index report released earlier this week stated that Queensland had overtaken Western Australia for job growth in the mining industry, with vacancies in the state rising 5.3 per cent in March to its highest level since January 2014.

Source: Australian Mining, 18 April 2019