Engineering, Manufacturing & Technical Recruitment – Market Commentary January 2012

Australia Wide Personnel would like to wish you all the best for 2012.

We’re excited by the year ahead. Although our experience of the engineering / technical recruitment market in the last quarter of 2011 was generally flat, we’ve witnessed some initial strong signs in the last week or two of December and the start of January.

Interestingly, the federal government has the engineering skills shortage in focus, having established a Senate Inquiry into the issue. The Inquiry is open to submissions from interested individuals and organisations and Australia Wide Personnel have made a submission with a number of suggestions for both short and long term solutions. We believe that if Australia is able to show it can produce, import and retain large quantities of high quality engineers we should then be developing a vision for one of the Australian capital cities to become a global engineering hub like Houston, London or Yokohama. Surely this isn’t too far-fetched given the quality of our engineering schools, our innovative engineering heritage and our natural resources.

Engineering

Recruiting for the NSW consulting engineering market is still quite slow across the board, although most of the large consultancies are relatively busy they are not really driving recruitment for permanent or contract staff. They are focusing on keeping existing permanent staff busy with the confirmed projects they do have. We are still recruiting for experienced civil engineers in stormwater design using MUSIC and DRAINS, as well as civil project engineers for large infrastructure pipeline projects and rail. Most client do have projects in the pipeline and they are saying that 2012 is going to be a busy and exciting year for new engineering and infrastructure projects.

The medium to small consultancies are still recruiting for top performing design engineers in civil and structural as well as professional proven project managers in construction. We are keen to see new resumes of experienced design engineers and drafters for both contract and permanent recruitment.

Queensland is gearing up again and has been steady in this fashion for consecutive quarters now. Although our Brisbane office is still relatively new, we’re now gaining a lot of enquiry in booming sectors such as the oil & gas and mining industries. We would encourage any experienced professionals looking for a change or new opportunity to update your details and send us a copy.

We are also deeply involved in the infrastructure and heavy industrial engineering space. We’re now working with major clientele in engineering consulting including larger EPCM companies. We are actively searching for high quality engineers across multi-disciplinary industries including civil, mechanical, process, chemical and electrical for both consultancies and the contractor alike.

Electronics, Software & Communications

We wish a Happy New Year to one and all and trust that the mini surge we experienced in mid to late December will continue. The final quarter of 2011 was nothing to write home about as demand sagged and candidates seemed to lose a bit of interest too, but then, a spike occurred just as we were getting ready for Christmas. It was patchy, of course, and tended to be at the more humble end of the salary spectrum, but early January has continued to show promise. One or two companies who have been rather shy in recent months have started to show some interest in who is available in electronic and firmware deign. So we can only hope that this distant rumbling in the hills will become a prolonged demand for Engineers (hardware, firmware and PC), as well as associated roles in manufacturing, test and QA. Only time will tell.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector is hopefully looking toward a brighter 2012 with a number of industries expecting a slight upturn in future orders.

We foresee growing demand for CNC machinists, press setters and operators, skilled assemblers and a range of logistics personnel including stores, warehousing, fork lift drivers and material planners.

The trades and technical areas continue to experience staff shortages with strong demand for electricians, fitters and turners, fabricators, welders and a wide range of service technicians.

Demand for casual labour still remains steady within the food, automotive and appliances industries, and we are hopeful of it strengthening over the next few months.

Mining

The Queensland mining market remains buoyant with the skills shortage remaining the key issue. Strong demand remains, particularly for mining engineers and geologists, especially those possessing underground mining experience. Working closely with Queensland’s mining owner/operators our clients also seek site engineers with maintenance experience in a processing environment across mechanical, electrical and process disciplines. While coal experience is favourable those with exposure to other commodities such as iron ore are also encouraged to apply. Most companies are now offering substantial relocation packages to attract personnel from interstate including Western Australia.

In regards to engineering consultancies and EPCM’s, they continue to have a strong need for electrical and mechanical engineers with design experience. We would welcome conversations with engineers with design experience in a heavy industry, materials handling or processing environment for multiple roles we currently have available. Roles are available in Brisbane as well as central and northern Queensland.

Automotive

The big issues for the local automotive industry center around the long term presence of Ford and General Motors Holden in Australia and what the Federal government can cobble together to encourage the big two to keep the local car industry going as a viable industry. There seems to be some optimism that Holden will retain engineering and manufacturing whilst Ford appears to have backed themselves with a large cash injection. There is certainly a lot of debate on both sides of politics about ongoing support as is evidenced in the media. Early days yet but let’s hope there is good news for the many thousands of local employees including those in the component side of the business. What the new car programs will involve is not yet certain. One thing is for sure – that Australian engineers know how to design world class vehicles. Surely this will be noted and acted upon positively, hopefully providing ongoing employment opportunities.

For both permanent and contract roles this quarter we have been busy recruiting resident engineers, R&D engineers, quality managers, process engineers, design engineers, drafters and quality technicians. Candidate chances of success are in no little way attributed to their preparation prior to interview. As part of your interview preparation make sure you are aware of the competencies required for success in the role. Prepare examples from your employment history that clearly demonstrate your abilities with respect to the specific competencies under examination. In this way you will be able to give your perspective employer the confidence that you will have success in the role.

My suggestion would be to make joining LinkedIn your New Year resolution. Happy New Year.

Building Services

The Building Services sector was up and down over the last quarter. There remain opportunities for experienced HVAC Sales Engineers and Account Managers in both the commercial and residential HVAC equipment market.

The consulting engineers are still finding things tough with many new projects in the pipeline still waiting for the go-ahead.

We are interested in candidates with experience in Mission Critical facilities and projects such as data-centres, clean rooms and laboratories as well as drafters with experience in Revit and BIM.

Drafting

In Victoria with the manufacturing sector continuing to remain quiet, the subdued demand for drafters has not altered significantly in the last quarter. The majority of the enquiry has been for SolidWorks designers with clients having very specific criteria for experience in their particular industry or type of business. There has however been some short term requirement for competent UG designers in the automotive sector. Rates for contracts still remain very competitive and there has been little upward increase in rates over the past year or two particularly as tenders for project work are remaining extremely competitive.

NSW is still enjoying a busy contracting market for design drafters and detailers including Civil, Structural, Mechanical and Electrical. The positions available in NSW are mainly contract roles ranging from 6 – 12 months as they are project driven. We are always interested in seeing resumes of experienced SolidWorks designers and REVIT MEP and Architecture designers as these are very hard to find in a candidate short market. Heavy materials handling designers are also in high demand using AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks and Microstation.

We have clients that will take experienced candidates from overseas that currently reside in NSW with current working holiday visas. Our positions are mainly in the Sydney metropolitan area but we are also recruiting heavily for the Newcastle and Wollongong markets.

Invitation to join our LinkedIn Group, “Australian Engineering Career Network”

Are you an engineer or do you recruit engineers? If so, we’d like to invite you to join our LinkedIn Group, Australian Engineering Career Network by clicking here.
Operating for 32 years, Australia Wide Personnel is one of the largest recruiters of engineers in Australia. We feel this places us well to host a LinkedIn Group which offers the following:

• Online participation in engineering careers discussions with fellow engineers and recruiters of engineers – share your experience and knowledge, ask questions of other engineering professionals and expand your network of professional engineering contacts.
• “Ask an Engineering Recruiter a Question”.
• Ability to post or access engineering jobs listed by group members.
• Access to regular engineering news feeds.

The Group is growing rapidly and already has over 1300 members since commencing in January last year. If you know of other engineers who may like to join this group, please forward this email to them. If you would like to join the Group but are not a member of LinkedIn, you will need to join LinkedIn first (free) by using the same link above.