Mining jobs rebounded in April

By Leith van Onselen

DFP Recruitment has released its mining and resources jobs index, which registered a 4.3% bounce in April – the first rise in six months:

The Index experienced its first positive result for 2014 with an increase from March to 80.66 in April, a welcomed rise of 4.3%…

Recent funding approval for projects in the Resources sector in Western Australia, as well as staffing demand for projects in Darwin, are some of the contributors to the rise. Western Australia’s domination of all Mining and Resource job advertising fell back just below the 60% record set last month.

Queensland still holds second place while the Northern Territory continues to grow steadily. The rise in jobs ads nationally was shared by all sub industry sectors.

As the largest sub sector of employment, Metal Ore experienced a rise of 3.6% in opportunities…

Increased hiring activity in the Resources sector as a result of the recent funding approval on the Roy Hill project in Western Australia coupled with further staffing demand surrounding the Ichthys project in Darwin are some of the contributors to this rise…

The rise in April was shared between Permanent and Temporary and Contract opportunities, rising 3.0% and 6.0% respectively…

The primary observation from this month’s data is that demand for Mining and Resources personnel in Queensland has stabilised…

Queenslanders will be watching the coal price closely as well as the positive news reported recently regarding the proposed $16.5 billion Indian-owned Adani Carmichael coal mine project in the Galilee Basin gaining approval by the State’s Coordinator-General. Western Australia experienced a rise from 92.39 to 95.63 suggesting prospects are faring relatively well in current conditions. Interestingly, the other states (including NT) achieved a healthy gain with all states reporting small increases.

Western Australia’s domination of all Mining and Resource job advertising fell back just below the 60% record set last month. Queensland still holds second place, however, has seen its market slip over the last 10 months from 30.22% to 18.14%. The Northern Territory has seen steady growth supported by the highly publicised Gas boom and increasing mid tier mining projects gaining further momentum.

The 4.3% rise in jobs ads nationally was shared by all sub industry sectors. These ranged from 2.9% in Coal Mining to 5.9% in Mining Services…

The strongest performing sector remains Oil and Gas. It experienced a 4.8% rise in what had otherwise been a slow start in 2014. Momentum seems to be gathering again in this field as a number of projects in Western Australia offer significant employment opportunities, not limited to significant operations at Wheatstone and Gorgon and the aforementioned Ichthys Project in the top end.

While the result is encouraging, it could merely represent the “calm before the storm”, given the expected unwinding of the once-in-a-century mining investment boom from next year (see next chart).