DFP Recruitment has released its mining and resources jobs index for December, which registered a seasonally adjusted fall of 2% to 67.27, marking nine falls out of the past ten months.
Year on year, the number of mining and resources job advertisements has fallen by 34.3% nationally, but by only 4.9% in the last quarter. December saw a 1.2% fall in permanent demand and a 3.0% fall in temporary and contract job advertisements (see next chart).
According to DFP, “the principal factor driving demand or the reduction in demand, is the price of commodities… we have identified a strong correlation between the price of major bulk commodities and job vacancies in the Mining and Resources sector” (see next chart).
At the state level, Queensland registered its first rise (+1.3%) for more than a year, although job vacancies have nearly halved over that time. In comparison, Western Australia experienced a poor month recording a 4.5% fall in vacancies. However, its index fell only 28.5% in 12 months and by only 12.5% in the last 6 months (see next chart).
Western Australia now offers 51.6% of all mining and resources vacancies in the country. Queensland remains a clear second with a market share of 26.4% (see next chart).
At the sub-sector level, December’s overall 2.0% decline nationally was spread unevenly between subsectors. Coal Mining fell a massive 9.6% and Mining Services fell 6.5%. By contrast, Exploration grew for a third successive month, whereas Metal Ore demand is 29.0% lower over the past year.
Oil and Gas has also disappointed, falling 40.0% over the past year. There was an expectation throughout the industry that new projects in gas might replace some of the jobs lost in coal and iron ore, and across mineral exploration. However, the falling oil price has scuttled industry’s hopes (see next chart).
