Australia: Study reveals an increase in mining numbers

A study authorised by the Minerals Council of Australia, and undertaken by tech firm CoverCard, reveals strong employment resources despite the pandemic.

The Covic-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the mining industry both in Australia and around the world. Despite this, it has been reported by CoverCard that employment has remained very strong, particularly in the resources sector.

Both Western Australia and Queensland have seen an increase in job advertisements in the mining industry is in Q2 2020. Western Australia saw a growth of 4% whilst Queensland saw an increase of 5%.

CoverCard collected the data by evaluating trades and skilled mining job trends from over 193,000 job advertisements across the minerals sector. The study is one of the largest of its kind in four years.

MCA CEO, Tania Constable commented, saying: “The sector is holding its ground relatively well in the face of a global pandemic.

Another 8 785 mining job ads were added to the research study in the last quarter. While that’s lower than the 9 242 job advertisements identified in the previous quarter, it shows that mining jobs have stayed strong even in the face of an unprecedented global pandemic.”

Both states are thought to lead Australia’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic as the minerals industry remains strong, despite struggles in many other industries and areas of employment.

In addition to the analysis of employment and job availability in the sector, CoverCard also revealed that licensed qualifications saw a rise in demand during the quarter. This suggests that job ads for trades and skilled roles have shot up in comparison to professional roles.

The report also highlighted the robustness of trades and skilled recruitment has increased in relation to professional corporate roles. The share of the sector’s job advertisements referencing fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) went up in the March 2020 to May 2020 quarter to 22.8%, which is noticeably higher than the long-run average of 18.2%.

Constable made further comments saying: “The CoverCard analysis not only allowed the industry to identify the key roles and skills in demand for the industry, but also to target initiatives that support local skills development initiatives in regional communities to access these jobs.

“Australian mining is proud to offer more job opportunities both during and in recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and is doing more to recruit more people to the highly skilled, highly paid jobs which mining offers”.