They all create high demands for trade skills and engineering services.  

In the wake of Cyclone Yasi in 2011, tradies from across Queensland came North to offer their services. Yasi created a short-lived but lucrative job bonanza. The job attraction from Ingham to Innisfail was so great that people in Townsville had to wait months for plumbers and painters.

The last Queensland mining boom, which peaked in 2014-15, also attracted workers from across the country. The high demand for skilled workers meant the lucky few could command salaries well above the norm. Beside distorting the salary scale, it put a drain on skilled trades, like boilermakers and truck drivers, everywhere else.

The North Queensland Stadium itself is not creating a drain on skilled trade. However, the ramp up of several North Queensland public and private projects, with similar timeframe and needing the same skills, are collectively creating that effect.

At a time when North Queensland struggles with high unemployment and underemployment, we are critically short of engineers, electricians, crane drivers, boiler makers and IT specialists. NQ is not alone in that struggle, as the rest of Australia’s big infrastructure projects also ramp up. Our region is competing against the rest of the country to attract skilled workers. The competition is fierce. Inevitably, asking salaries are going up. For organisations putting in tenders now for projects in two years-time, gauging future salaries is more art than science. What will the salaries be then? What will be the impact on profit?

 

“This is a call to all shoppers to buy local this holiday season. While the convenience of online shopping is undeniable, there is a real impact when we don’t spend locally. Every dollar spent exchanges hands 13 times, so this Christmas, make sure as many of those hands are local.”

 

 

Many factors entice workers to relocate, including work opportunities, family reasons, and better conditions. To attract skilled workers, the Chamber believes two factors should be focused on. The first is to normalise the economic curve. Yasi, the mining boom and the Stadium provide short to medium term economic boosts. But when the project is done, boost turns to bust. The effect on the curve is a series of peaks and troughs, showing that NQ trade workers have had little employment consistency over the recent past. While private industry will react to the skill shortage by staging or postponing projects, the public sector, particularly State and Local Government, has great influence in smoothing the economic curve. Government need to react in a fashion similar to the private sector by staging and planning infrastructure projects in the short and long term. Government also need to offer flexible public tenders, allowing for parcels of work of different sizes to accommodate high and low demands of skills over time.

The second is to extend the pipeline of work. The more infrastructure projects we have over the longest period of time will attract skilled workers looking for job security. Education is a critical element in this balancing act. A renewed emphasis on traditional trade in a digital world needs to be encouraged. Chamber has been working with Tec-NQ and TAFE Queensland North toward that aim. One way to educate skilled workers more quickly is to allow funding to be directed at short courses to develop specific skills. Such accreditations can take a year or less to attain, and allow a skilled worker to work while building his/her credentials toward a full certification. Currently, funding is only directed at full certification which takes up to four years to complete and offer little work opportunity over that time.

It is expected that NQ low skill workers will re-train to obtain higher skilled jobs, which means there will be plenty of opportunities for those unemployed willing to take up their place.

 

Support the businesses that support us, here are a few of our members:

GOLD Townsville Chamber Members

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BM Webb Holdings Building and Construction

italktravel Townsville Travel

Lend Lease Communities Building and Construction

Mike Carney Toyota Automotive

Northern Consulting Engineers Engineering

Optus Telecommunication

Parkside Timber Company Building and Construction

Parry NQ Automotive

Pickerings Auto Group Automotive

Tec-NQ Education

Terracom (formerly Guildford Coal) Mining and Minerals

 

SILVER Townsville Chamber Members

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Donhad Manufacture and Fabrication

Flanagan Consulting Group Engineering

GHD Engineering

Jewellery By Design Retail

Locker Group – Webforge Manufacture and Fabrication

Lollo & Allan Electrical & Sound Mask Electrical

Michel’s Restaurant Restaurants

Minelec Electrical Contractors Electrical

Rockfield Technologies Australia Engineering

Rowes Bay Golf Club Sporting Clubs

Rowlands Surveys Town Planning and Surveying

TAFE Queensland North Education

Universal Cranes Townsville Heavy Machinery

Zizzi’s Italian Bar and Grill Restaurant