There is no doubt that Australia’s mining industry is currently in the middle of a major boom period – and as is so often the case when the island nation’s resources industries are on the up there are critical issues related to skills shortages. This time the situation has been magnified by the additional burdens placed on the mining manpower pool by the continuing effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The Australian Resources & Energy Employer Association’s (AREEA) newly published “Resources and Energy Workforce Forecast 2022– 2027” report shows there are 107 major resources and energy projects advanced in Australia’s investment pipeline, either already committed or considered “likely” by the Federal Department of Industry and AREEA analysts, to enter production between the second half of 2022 and end of 2027.
These projects are worth roughly A$130B in capital value and would create demand for an additional 24,000 production-based roles within this five-year period.
“While industry growth should always be celebrated, there is no doubt many resources and energy sector CEOs would look at such data with some trepidation,” the AREEA report stated.
“Shortages in skilled labour are overwhelmingly the biggest issue facing employers in the industry. This is not only threatening the continuity of operations but driving other issues including historic levels of staff turnover and spiralling sign-on and retention bonuses.”
AREEA reported that the resources industry is particularly hard hit now, due to the extraordinary level of workforce growth it has experienced over the past two years. According to a May Quarter report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) the industry directly employed 295,200 people – it’s highest ever recorded level.
Nationally, the industry has grown by nearly 20,000 workers in the past quarter alone. Over two years (May 2020 – May 2022), the industry has grown by 66,000 workers or by nearly 30%.
Should all the projects listed in this report come to fruition, as expected, the industry’s workforce would surpass the never-before-seen 300,000 mark sometime in 2023 and grow by another 8% over the next five years.
“On current trend, this may very well prove to be highly conservative,” AREEA concluded.
Motor mechanics and civil engineers
Another report published in mid-August to highlight Australia’s National Skills Week is just as alarming, declaring that mining worker shortages could slow mineral exports and delay climate change agenda.
It suggested that Western Australia’s mining and resource sector alone could need as many as 40,000 more workers by mid-2023. National Skills Week’s Chairman, Brian Wexham, highlighted that Australia’s mining industry was responsible for 10.4% of GDP between 2019 and 2020, making it the single largest contributor to the national economy.
He said while Australia’s minerals production remained robust in 2021 – leading in global production of iron ore and lithium and ranking second in gold and cobalt – near and medium-term labour shortages are looming that could slow mineral exports.
“The mining sector has been highly productive over recent years despite the headwinds of COVID-19 and variable commodity prices,” Mr Wexham said.
“However, booming infrastructure spending in the eastern states has meant stiffer competition for skilled people who traditionally might have been lured to the more resource rich states for work.
Two job categories that stand out especially in this space are motor mechanics and civil engineers.
“Motor mechanics are in short supply, due to smaller numbers from the training system, the closure until recently of international borders, and reduced geographic mobility. This imbalance is forecast to grow, especially in the mining states of Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. Civil engineers are central to government investment programmes and will continue to be in demand given the long lead times on projects. A plateauing in higher education graduates has put more reliance on international migrants to perform this occupation.”
Dr Gavin Lind, CEO of the Australian Minerals & Energy Skills Alliance (AUSMESA) says there are hundreds of diverse career choices open across the mining and energy sector.
“Opportunities exist on remote sites, in city-based offices, and high-tech control and management centres, in science as well as computer laboratories, in a mix of locations across Australia.
“You can make a career managing a team, rehabilitating mine sites, building robotics, piloting drones, engineering machinery, safeguarding native plants and animals, social and community responsibility and philanthropy, or tackling climate change. Workers can build skills to work anywhere around the world. With so many jobs on offer there has never been a better time to consider a career in Australian mining.
“The minerals and energy sector is at the forefront of technological advances that will reduce Australia’s reliance on fuel, generate cleaner energy, minimize water use, and reduce carbon emissions, as well as social advances that will ensure that sustainable benefits and opportunities extend to First Nations people whose land they work on and to surrounding communities, and that women are strongly supported in the workforce.”
A key objective of National Skills Week is to identify and highlight industries with the most in-demand jobs of the future as well as sectors forecast to see the biggest growth in coming years, to ensure Australians can gain the training and education they need to secure those jobs and maintain stable long-term employment.
Mr Wexham said it is critical that school leavers, job seekers, parents, and career changers are informed of what the jobs of the future are, and what Australia’s most critical skills shortages and jobs needs are.
“This will ensure our young people, yet to start careers, can gain training and skills in education which is going to secure them a job at the end of that training.
“Further, it will assist in funnelling Australia’s labour market into the training opportunities which are most likely going to lead to their employment is the most in-demand jobs of the future.
This year’s National Skills Week will be centred around the theme of “A Universe of Skills” encouraging people to go beyond their imagination to discover careers, pathways, and opportunities in skills and Vocational Education that they may not know about, thought about or even imagined.
“National Skills Week plays a pivotal role in strengthening and communicating the key messages of industry and government in an environment shaped by the fluid nature of skills requirements and ever-evolving technologies,” said Mr Wexham.
“This initiative is designed to achieve real, transformative outcomes for Australian people – to inspire people to undertake active, participative education and training that VET provides resulting in skills that can realise immediate rewards in jobs, success and contribute to building our economy.”
Surging demand
A huge increase in new workers emerging from Australia’s universities, high schools, and tertiary institutes is needed in every Australian state and territory, according to the AREEA report. It forecasts skills shortages across a whole range of commodity developments.
Demand from the 89 mining projects modelled is forecast to be 20,365 workers. This is significantly frontloaded in the forecast timeline with 69 projects requiring 15,000 workers by the end of 2024.
Gold contains 21 projects requiring 3,580 workers, more than half of which (11 projects, 2,000 employees) are expected to come online in the second half of 2022 alone. Coal has 21 projects requiring nearly 7,200 workers, spread more evenly over the five-year forecast timeline.
With a number of large new projects entering production over the past two years, iron ore will play a more modest role in new project growth over the next five-year period, with seven projects requiring some 1,800 new workers.
The most notable area of emerging opportunity for Australia is in critical minerals, with a mixture of lithium, graphite, manganese, zircon, vanadium, and other rare earths, seeing 19 projects in the category projected to require over 2,500 new workers by 2025.
Furthermore, there is a healthy supply of new and expansion projects across copper, nickel/cobalt, and “other commodities” (e.g. phosphate and sulphate), requiring just under 4,000 new workers by 2025, said the AREEA report.
