Professionals in the building industry are facing the most competition since 2002 when finding work, new research released today reveals.
The Clarius Skills Index uses a score of 100 to indicate equal tension between labour supply and demand. Anything greater than 105 indicates a high demand for skills, with 105 being extreme. Dropping below 100 suggests a skills oversupply, with below 95 being extreme.
Building and engineering professionals and associate professions both fell to 99.4, which is the lowest level seen by this sector since 2002.
This decline represents weakness in the construction industry indicated by falling approvals. The report suggests rising unemployment is limiting consumers’ ability to borrow and banks have responded to the global financial crisis by tightening home-buyer requirements. At the same time, the first home owners scheme is keeping the lower end of the residential market turning.
Non-residential building has also been hit hard, with commercial developers finding it difficult to borrow and asset values declining, which in turn pushes up gearing ratios.
In the engineering field, long project lags mean the effects of the economic downturn will not be felt until 2010-11, the research said.
Even so, the picture is not as bleak as the March figures painted, Clarius group executive manager, Kym Quick, said.
“We expected worse. But the latest analysis, and what we’re seeing in the market place, indicates that job losses in skilled occupations are close to bottoming out,” she said.
“I believe, on current indicators, that the employment market could be close to where it was 18 months ago by July-August next year with many occupations including engineering, accounting, building and construction related trades and ICT again experiencing skills shortages.”
