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There's A Wealth Of Work Way Out West

24th May 2019

Job vacancies in the WA resources sector are the highest they’ve been since February 2014, with statistics showing the skills shortage is rising.

As shown by the April DFP Mining and Resources Job Index report, vacant positions rose 1.4 per cent last month in WA, in comparison to a 1.1 per cent fall nationally.

Robert van Strokom, chief executive of DFP Recruitment, said that the skills shortage is a consequence of having the best mining jobs market in more than five years.

“The positivity of it is the fact that things are continuing to improve for WA and that vacancies are improving in the mining sector, which obviously points to a resurgence in mining jobs which is a good thing.”

Mining and resource job advertisements soared 5.8 per cent last month, which, according to Seek, places the mining and resources industry in the top five industries with the highest job ad growth in Australia.

Chief executive of WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy, Paul Everingham, responded to the Federal Coalition’s election win saying that WA’s resources sector would need an additional 15,000 specific skilled roles over the next six months.

“During the election campaign, Mr Morrison committed a new $525 million skills package with 80,000 new apprenticeships, in addition to record education funding,” Mr Everingham said. “While this might not help in the short-term, it’s reassuring to know that we will have skilled workers coming through.”