Engineering, Manufacturing & Technical Recruitment – Market Commentary October 2011
Although it’s fairly hard to open the financial press and locate many positive stories, we’ve experienced reasonably steady demand for recruitment across the engineering / technical sectors in which we operate. It seems to us that employers have become immune to a degree to the wild gyrations of the financial markets and are just getting on with business. In recent months, we have generally seen a strengthening of contract / temporary opportunities ahead of permanent positions. This usually happens when there is a degree of uncertainty in the economic cycle and companies have work which they need done but may not quite have the confidence to appoint a permanent team member.
In September, Australia Wide Personnel experienced a significant milestone in the company’s history by opening an operation in Brisbane. We’ve been operating in the Melbourne market since 1979. We opened in Sydney one year ago with a great team and that positive experience gave us confidence to make the move to Brisbane. Experienced Brisbane technical recruiter Matt Arkoshy has been appointed Queensland Manager and we’re actively looking to build the team.
Following are our observations of some of the key recruitment markets we have been operating in.
Automotive
If by any chance we have forgotten that we live in a global market and are no longer isolated but connected through new technologies, the recent September issue of GoAuto News and specifically the article entitled “Design software helps to propel Australian automotive expertise to world via web” can serve as a timely reminder. The article reports that Australian automotive designers and engineers are opening doors into overseas markets such as China, Thailand and India by using design software that allows them to work in parallel with their overseas counterparts in real time over the internet. Local car-makers Ford and Toyota and 25 major component suppliers are using the French-developed Catia design software. The software allows engineers at Australian companies such as automatic transmission-maker DSI, car interiors specialist Futuris and electronics supplier Bosch to work hand-in-hand with car-maker counterparts anywhere in the world, speeding up the car design process, saving millions of dollars and creating more opportunities for Australian intellectual property and design prowess. Because all components are designed on the same program, they can be assembled ‘virtually’ as the design progresses, with suppliers and OEMs having access to each other’s latest design data via the web at any time. The program’s CAD process is so sophisticated that it allows the car companies to skip the traditional, time-consuming hand-made clay styling ‘buck’ and go straight from a digital 3D mock-up to metal at the prototype and tooling stages.
After a big jump in sales in August, new figures show Australians are on track to buy one million new cars in 2011. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) says improving supply from Japan and stronger sales in Queensland are behind Augusts lift in sales. The FCAI reported new vehicle sales rose 7.3 per cent to 88,082 in August, compared with the same month a year ago. The bulk of the August improvement came in the four-wheel drive category, which rose 19.4 per cent in the month. Despite the strong August performance, vehicle sales on a year-to-date basis were down 4.4 per cent, or 30,357 units, from the prior corresponding period.
In recent times we have been recruiting engineering and sales positions, for both permanent and contract roles. In particular we have been busy in the automotive Tier 1 sector placing Product, R&D, Manufacturing, Technical Support, Design, Quality and Sales Engineers, Production Engineers, Project Engineers and Sales Managers and CAD Designers. Remember always go prepared to interview – the better the preparation the better the result. Keep updating your LinkedIn profile to maximise your employment opportunities and to increase the market awareness of your availability and expertise.
Building Services
The first quarter of the new financial year has seen a downturn in the Victorian Building Services consultancy market. New commercial projects have been far and few between and there has been a spate of redundancies from a number of consulting firms. Whilst consultancies are struggling to find enough jobs to keep their existing employees busy it is hard to see many new employment opportunities in this sector for the next few months in the traditional consulting disciplines.
There is still a little bit of interest in Sustainability and Energy Auditing roles in the lead up to the new Carbon Tax and other environmental and sustainability measures being introduced. We are always looking for candidates experience in ESD, energy performance, plant efficiency, tri-generation and co-generation plant and water / wastewater efficiency. There is also still some interest for people with experience in Mission Critical facilities and projects such as data-centres, clean rooms and laboratories and HVAC project drafters with good shop-drawing skills experience and a knowledge of Revit and BIM. We still have opportunities for experienced HVAC Sales Engineers and Account Managers in both the commercial and residential HVAC equipment market.
Consulting Engineering
The larger consultancies are still not producing many opportunities as they are unsure of the economy and working on a number of projects across all disciplines. Some of the smaller more specialised consultancies are still recruiting for experienced civil and structural engineers as well as designers and drafters. We are interested in receiving resumes across all disciplines for both contract and permanent positions.
Drafting
The drafting market In Victoria continues to remain very quiet in the manufacturing sector both for contract and permanent work. Initial enquiries for contract drafting tend to be for a short duration possibly due to caution and uncertainty. Rates for contracts still remain very competitive and there has been little upward increase in rates over the past year or two, particularly in manufacturing. More recently most enquiries have been for competent SolidWorks designers.
NSW has experienced buoyant market for designers and drafters over the past couple of months mainly working in specialist industries such as materials handling, industrial and heavy industry. The market has been busy for both contract and permanent recruitment and indications are it will continue to be so for the last quarter of the calendar year. Good design drafters are quite hard to come by and we are constantly recruiting for experienced design drafters with AutoCAD, Microstation, Inventor and SolidWorks across all disciplines.
Electronics, Software & Communications
The job scene has slowed in the past two months – no surprises here with the volatility in financial sectors. Opportunities in electronic and software design and development have slowed right down. Downward pressure on salaries persists. There are always exceptions but these tend to be by company rather than by industry or other sub group. The decline in electronic (or similar) manufacturing continues to be a worry, with most firms doing well to maintain one day shift at full capacity. The effect is that employers are being very picky indeed in their selection processes. Strangely enough, however, the availability of suitably experienced candidates is also tight, for example, in embedded software. When the job market is buoyant, normally candidate supply is low and vice versa. Occasionally we encounter a perfect wave of plenty of jobs and plenty of candidates, though not too often and not for long. Presently, it seems to be the opposite – limited roles and not so many candidates with the required background. It is not at critical mass as yet, but a degree of stability in world finances and a confidence boosting surge in local manufacturing would definitely help. In the big picture, Technology job prospects are reasonably constant, and we remain confident for a strong end to the year and to a healthy start in 2012.
Infrastructure Engineering
NSW has not really seen any growth in Infrastructure Engineering requirements for contract or permanent placements since the last commentary. Most of our clients have large projects in the pipeline but they are not committing to new hires at this stage as the are unsure with the economy and government in new infrastructure projects being released. The pipeline of projects will happen eventually but until they are signed off this is a very slow market.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing sector continues to remain in a state of uncertainty over which direction it is headed. The Australian dollar has recently gone below parity and if it continues to drop will make Australian manufacturing more competitive with overseas importers, however, no one can forecast exactly where the dollar will head longer term.
Government decisions will play a major part in how well the manufacturing sector weathers the current global turmoil. The government is being lobbied strongly on behalf of manufacturing – it will be interesting to see if any definitive and significant policies are developed to assist the sector.
While quite a number of industries in the Metals and Automotive Sectors are in the doldrums and are not hiring labour, especially in the semi-skilled or non-skilled areas, we are still seeing a skills shortage due to the mining industry absorbing a large amount of trades people into their industry.
Whilst consumer sentiment is down with people spending less in order to save, a number of manufacturers we have spoken to recently expect to see a resurgence in spending leading up to Xmas with a consequent increase in demand for labour.
Resources
Demand for mining professionals in exploration is showing signs of slowing down whilst there is a surge in demand from the operational side. In particular, geologists are in huge demand as are mining engineers, underground coal professionals, deputies, drill and blast engineers and long wall and development professionals.
Some clients are very interested in maintenance engineers – mechanical, electrical, instrumentation / process control and reliability engineers, from a process manufacturing background (eg vehicles, food & beverages, timber production). This presents a good opportunity for tradespeople from the southern states to participate in the mining sector.
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 1000 members since commencing in January this 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.
