The Labour force outlook study was prepared by the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide for the MCA, and forecast the mining industry’s need for workers would remain strong for the next decade.
After iron ore, coal was the mining sector needing the most new employees by 2020.
Geographically, the biggest areas of employee growth would be Western Australia, needing 47,698 new workers by 2020, followed by Queensland requiring 23,035 new bodies.
And the greatest demand across all commodities would be for tradespeople and semi-skilled workers, with these categories accounting for 61,386 new workers or 71% of the overall increase.
In good news for the mining industry, the study suggested even as the need for such tradespeople and semi-skilled workers grew in the mining sector, the demand for such employees would decline across the overall economy.
“There is likely to be sufficient capacity in the labour market in these two key occupational categories to meet the industry labour demand,” the study found.
Despite this, the mining sector could continue to face problems attracting workers to the remote areas where the employment demand would be strongest.
“Our projections make it clear the labour attraction problem is long term and growing,” the study said.
“Workers in the trades and semi-skilled occupations reside predominantly in the cities, and the mining industry will need to devise incentives to attract them to the remote mining centres of Australia.”
Another key issue faced by the industry over the next 12 years would be productivity.
The study’s projections for the industry sectors and states were based on the assumption that productivity in the industry would remain unchanged. However, given the numbers of new workers coming into the sector with less experience and skills, these figures could be on the low side as productivity falls.
With new workers entering the industry and needing training, and even semi-skilled workers from the manufacturing industry, for instance, needing to learn new skills, the study said a fall in productivity was “likely”
A productivity fall would require more workers to make up the gap, the study found, estimating a 10% productivity drop would lead to a need for an additional 108,000 new workers.
As a result, the study suggested the mining industry should continue to invest in labour-saving technology to offset potential productivity losses.
The report also suggested employers should focus on worker turnover as well as intensive training and up-skilling for new and existing workers.
“The mining industry has traditionally focused on on-the-job training,” the study added.
“A more holistic, long-term strategy would include greater emphasis on entry career-oriented, entry level and certified training design to encourage workers to ‘shift careers’ on a permanent or at least long-term basis.”
