Engineering & Technical Recruitment Market Commentary July 2012

Since our last quarter commentary, the recruitment ride has been quite bumpy we figure because of the uncertainty in Europe, the end of our financial year and the as yet unknown impact of the Carbon Tax. Despite these factors our office in Brisbane has experienced significant growth as the employment opportunities for engineering professionals have been very strong. The mining, oil and gas, and engineering consultancies have been the star performers.

Sydney has stabilized but we are finding there are more opportunities in contracting rather than permanent employment. We have also experienced this shift in Melbourne, which is the flattest of our markets. Appointment of Administrators or closures of long standing Victorian manufacturing companies are a major concern.

Our initiative this quarter is to further enhance our service delivery in the Perth and Western Australia market to allow us to offer even greater support to clients and candidates. Our market feedback tells us that many companies in Western Australia are now looking to the eastern states for employees and are having difficulty identifying experienced engineering and technical specialists who will make the move west.

To this end we have run an intensive candidate based search across our entire national network to identify those who will relocate or are already in Western Australia and are available to discuss appropriate engineering and technical employment opportunities. We have identified a large number of professionals in disciplines ranging from Manufacturing, Plant/Operations, Engineering and Quality Managers to Instrument Technicians, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, Project Engineers and Supervisors with experience representative across all industry sectors.

Australia Wide Personnel is a national recruitment agency that is recognised as one of the major recruiters of professional engineering staff in Australia. The business handles permanent and contract recruitment assignments and operates from offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. We have an impressive track record for recruiting a wide range of engineering, technical, operations and technical executive roles.

Following is the feedback and our observations from the key recruitment markets we are operating in that we trust you will find valuable.

Automotive and Manufacturing – Victoria and NSW

The manufacturing and automotive sectors continue to be relatively slow. Our feedback is that companies are currently reluctant to invest in long term permanent recruitment strategies. At present they favour hiring contract or on-hired employees. This has had a direct impact on the increasing number of on-hired assignments that we have been working on. Overall, demand within food manufacturing remains constant and electronics is starting to pick up, however automotive continues to be extremely slow.

With respect to permanent professional engineering recruitment there has been demand for specific skills in a number of areas. As a result we have been busy recruiting Engineering Managers, Design Engineers, Material Engineers, Senior Design Engineers and Business Development Managers in the defence, food, metals and composite manufacturing areas.

On-hired industrial labour in Melbourne has seen an increase in demand for Mechanical & Electrical Assemblers, Fork Lift Drivers and industry specific experienced packers.

On-hired in Sydney is experiencing a high demand for CNC machinists who can program and operate large borers and mills. In addition they are busy with an increase in demand for people to work in the Waste Services industry. Future opportunities will include roles for Plant Operators, Maintenance Fitters, Electricians and Process Workers.

Candidates seeking employment must never under estimate the impact of their interview preparation. The greater the interview preparation the greater the probability of success. Remember to use or join LinkedIn if you have not done so already.

Building Services

The building services sector has remained flat for the past 18 months and the last quarter was no different, the biggest impact being the unfortunate collapse of the Hastie Group. Whilst some of the Hastie companies were fortunate to find buyers, there were many companies that were not. This has meant an influx of good, experienced candidates on the market. The collapse also meant that the other industry players have been wary of the aftermath and there has not been much hiring activity.

Energy efficiency and sustainability is still front of mind for many organisations and there is always interest in mechanical and electrical engineers with experience in these fields. Also there are opportunities for Sales Engineers and Technical Sales Engineers to promote new energy efficient technologies. Whilst everyone is waiting to see the true impact of the Carbon Tax there is no doubt that energy costs are increasing and the push is now towards efficient energy solutions.

In speaking with a wide range of clients the outlook for the next two quarters is still positive with many companies planning for new hiring opportunities in the December quarter.

Civil Infrastructure – Brisbane

The need for experienced civil Infrastructure professionals has really dried up over the last two weeks and this is most likely due to the completion of the Airport Link Project. The second quarter showed continued growth, there were numerous companies looking to secure talent in their respective fields. Some of the positions that have been in demand include; Senior Civil Engineers, Project Engineers & Civil Superintendents with mining experience.

There is still plenty of optimism in the civil market for next quarter and beyond, however companies are predicting the final quarter of this year to be a good indicator to their success in 2013. Residential Civil Construction in Brisbane is still moving very slowly, while companies involved in the resources and infrastructure sectors are still reasonably steady and should continue that way until the end of the year. There is a slight demand for experienced Civil Supervisors, Project Managers and a high demand for Engineers with main roads experience.

Consulting Engineering – Sydney and Brisbane

The Sydney market has been buoyant over the last couple of weeks and moving into August and September we are starting to recruit for a number of experienced engineers and designers. Typically we are not really having much success with the large multi disciplined consultancies but more the EPCMs and consultancies that are working within bulk materials handling, chemical processing and water and wastewater treatment. The roles we have been trying to fill have been from principle lead level to designers and those requiring 5 years plus experience in piping, pipelines, mechanical and civil engineering for design engineers and project engineering. These roles have mainly been long term contract with some permanent positions. Sydney has a number of large rail and infrastructure projects in the conceptual design phase which will lead to busy contracting market in the next quarter.

Engineering in Queensland has been steady for consecutive quarters now however it would appear that the end of financial year and school holidays have had some impact in terms of moving forward. Client enquiry has lowered to probably its worst since we opened in Brisbane; however, we are still relatively busy working with our existing business relationships which involve Engineering Consulting and EPCM style organisations. This is primarily across multi-disciplinary industries including, civil, mechanical and electrical.

Engineers are still in high demand especially at the intermediate / senior level. Principal Engineers and/or Engineering Managers still have options, as always, however, a focus on the support staff to those positions are red hot at the moment.

We would encourage any experienced professionals in Queensland (or looking to work in QLD) to update your details and send a copy to our office.

Drafting – NSW and Victoria

Leading on from the engineering consultancies we are still recruiting throughout NSW for mechanical, electrical, civil and structural designers and detailers for both 3D and 2D design in materials handling, chemical processing, special vehicles, power and infrastructure. This has again mainly been in the small to medium companies. We are always interested in seeing resumes from competent designers and drafters with experience in AutoCAD, REVIT, Inventor and Solidworks for both contract and permanent positions.

Activity in Victoria for drafters still remains low due to depressed activity within both the manufacturing and construction markets. There is currently a small demand for designers with experience in heavy materials handling using Inventor. There is also some activity in automotive CAD Design for experienced CATIA CAD Designers.

Success in securing roles is becoming increasingly related to having previous experience in the same industry or similar project with little flexibility to appoint candidates who do not have an almost exact match. Rates have continued to be steady with little or no increase and the roles that are on offer are more likely to be short term contract.

Electronics, Software and Communications – Melbourne

A new financial year has begun, surely promising to offer more than the latter part of the old year. The market in terms of job opportunities could be seen as “in the doldrums”. Fortunately there are exceptions. Hardware design roles are almost non existent while embedded software has also dried up, again with the odd exception here and there (e.g. for embedded Linux or embedded C++). Opportunities in C# are more prevalent and this is likely to be the pattern of things to come. Industry contacts have been saying that the glass is half empty as regards long term sales visibility and somewhere along the line we need a groundswell to make it half full, so let’s get hiring. We are aware of retrenchments but again, thankfully, a few firms have continued to take on staff, if only on contract to see whether the tide is really rising or falling. Consequently, pressure on salaries persists, which is a natural market response to what has presumably been a reaction to wider economic pressures, and candidates need to be aware that companies are not so inclined as they were to offer a big increase to tempt you to join them. Of course, if you have all that they need, then you are in a stronger position, but the trend has been not to pay the candidate’s requested salary for a new position, especially if it involves a hefty percentage rise, say, 10% or above. Play it cool and if it’s the job you really want, don’t ask for the stars, keep your feet on the ground and your hand on your wallet. It has to pick up as we move into the latter half of the year.

Mining

Metalliferous mining has seen consistent growth over the last quarter particularly in Queensland and Western Australia. Gold prices are beginning to pick up again after a large dip in early May, due to this and the expectation that the price per ounce is only likely to increase, long term feasibility studies and mine construction projects are on the rise. We are likely to see even more investment in Gold moving forward. Unfortunately we have seen a consistent decline across copper and base metals prices since the lofty heights of 12 months ago; this in turn has led to some operations not continuing development at the expected rate. On the plus side increased investment in near mine and regional exploration has meant some outstanding findings across the country with high grade metals and copper being discovered in the Mt Isa region as well as regional New South Wales. As we push on into a new financial year there is an incredibly high level of demand for technical professionals with experience in both open cut and underground mining. Currently there are a large number of FIFO and residential opportunities in Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia as well as many residential opportunities in New South Wales. In particular there is high demand for Mining and Exploration Geologists, Mine Surveyors, Mining Engineers, Geotechnical Engineers, Metallurgy Professionals and Mine Managers. Things are shaping very well after good economic growth over the last 12 months and we are looking forward to a successful new financial year.

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 33 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 1800 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.