DFP Recruitment has released its mining and resources jobs index for March, which registered another large seasonally adjusted fall of 8.2% to 60.05, with vacancies down 31.20% nationally over the past year, by 15.1% in the last 6 months and 10.7% over the last quarter.
March saw a massive 10.9% fall in permanent vacancies and an 8.7% fall in temporary and contract job advertisements (see next chart).
According to DFP:
This month’s very weak advertisement numbers make depressing reading in all of our comparatives…
A sure sign of employer’s lack of confidence is demonstrated by the trend away from permanent hiring and continued movement towards temporary and contract staffing solutions. Permanent opportunities now represent 48% of all vacancies, down from 60% in November 2013.
Job vacancies continue to follow commodity prices downwards (see next chart).
The precipitous national fall was also felt across all states, with job vacancies falling by 10.2% in Western Australia in March, whereas in Queensland they fell 4.2% (see next chart).
Western Australia’s share of mining and resources jobs has also fallen to 49.3%, down 9% over the past year (see next chart).
Meanwhile, job vacancies across all sub-components have fallen hard (see next chart).
The mining jobs bust is well and truly on, with much more pain to come as large resources projects are completed.
