Resourceful use of energy

Weekend Australian
Saturday 16/5/2009 Page: 6

THINGS are not as crook in the engineering and mining sectors as some reports have suggested, and recruiters and university careers advisers say there are still more jobs in mining and engineering than top candidates to fill them. But it can't be gainsaid that there is also stress in the sectors.

According to the Hudson Report of employer expectations for the April-June quarter this year, "employer sentiment in construction-property-engineering sentiment fell 10.4 points to minus 4.6% , and overall a low net 0.8% of the 6337 employers surveyed reported an intention to increase their permanent staff levels during the April-June 2009 quarter".

This result is 4.6 points below the result recorded for the previous quarter and a considerable 24.5 points below October- December 2008," the report says. "Mining employment is set to fall sharply over the course of this year and is likely to continue falling for at least another two to three years. Workers in coal, zinc, lead and copper mines, as well as in the property and construction sectors, will be affected as mines are shut down and production cut back." But the news is not all grim.

Hudson found that sentiment in the utilities sector was robust at plus 28.9% , down 0.2 points from the previous quarter. In NSW, for instance, in the utilities sector, employer confidence rose nine points to plus 28.6% this quarter as several projects received increased funding.

Neville Andrews at Hudson says that, if you are looking only at the mining sector, things have been bad in the resource states of Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland, but the thermal coal sector in NSW is strong and goldminers throughout the country are doing well, so the entire mining sector is not under stress.

The ones most under pressure, he says, are contractors and operators in the resource states, but "there's robust opportunities in the utilities and energy sectors, and also in defence, especially in South Australia". Dawn White, the University of New South Wales's employer programs co-ordinator and president of the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (www.nagcas.org.au), says there has been a slight increase in graduate recruitment in engineering and there was a substantial increase in the number of engineering firms represented at UNSW's recent careers expo, "a very good sign".

Hays, another leading recruiter and researcher, sees strength particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Infrastructure projects are already affecting some states, says Patrick Digby, head of operations and engineering at recruiter Randstad, formerly Tanner Menzies: "It's big in Brisbane, there's rail in the west, but it's fairly stable elsewhere yet."

Hays resources recruiter Simon Winfield also finds strength in infrastructure projects and says that even in mining there is still a shortage of good engineers, but he sees the real action as being in oil and gas, "where there are more jobs than candidates". He believes gas and oil will take over from mining as Australia's big employer during the next five years. "The Pluto project is picking up and Gorgon has already spent $1 billion in preliminary work. Gorgon will soak up 5000 jobs when it is at its peak," Winfield says.

As well as oil and gas, renewable energy projects also promise enduring engineering employment, says Michael Green, director at Bradman Recruitment. "It's so strong that universities such as [the University of Technology Sydney] have introduced specific courses to train people for the sector. wind energy is a particularly strong growth area," he says.

Darren Hill, at recruiter Bluefin resources, holds even more hope for the sector: "Environmental engineers will be the new IT. Every company will need to have one. And everyone is on tenterhooks about the new carbon economy and what that will do to employment patterns. Billions of dollars have been promised to the renewable energy sector and, although the money hasn't started filtering through yet, it is going to."

Hill has also seen an increased interest in engineering consultants to assess and implement performance-enhancement programs. Green says renewable energy and, notably, wind turbines demand a range of engineering skills from design and software through to mechanical and electrical, construction and civil engineering, and maintenance. "Employment in the sector is growing slowly but steadily and we can't know just yet what will happen," Green says.

The triggers, he says, would be the Australian Senate passing carbon trading legislation, what US President Barack Obama does next in terms of environmental policies and the decisions made at the next Kyoto round, which will be held in Copenhagen in late December. Hill's Bluefin colleague Duncan Amos also has noticed more demand for people with skills in developing and applying specialist mining and engineering software.

Hudson's Andrews says organisations are using the global crisis to streamline their businesses. Many haven't had a structured view of their talent capability and the crisis has led them to reassess their strengths. Unfortunately, he says, some companies have let go top people as well as ones who don't quite fit, and for those people the best advice is to examine their skills and assess which are transferable and align them with industries that can use them. He says salaries have not come rocketing down: "They've plateaued, but they haven't plummeted."