Engineers axed as boom peaks
Signs that the mining development boom is peaking have forced one of the resource sector’s biggest engineering contractors, UGL, to cut more than 700 jobs, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The company would now look elsewhere for growth.
Chief executive Richard Leupen said the sector was facing the biggest structural change in a decade and the full impact of the downturn would not be visible in the construction sector for another year.
The value of engineering construction fell in the last three months of 2012. It was the first decline in a year and another sign the huge resources projects investments, which have propped up the economy, might be slowing.
Mining services sector stuck in hole
Ongoing investor caution about the mining services outlook is preventing the sector from making a more meaningful stockmarket recovery, despite a reasonable showing during profit season, the Australian Financial Review reports.
Analysts and fund managers say the results from mining services companies over the past month – bar just a handful of disappointments – justified the general rebound in stock prices from last year.
It’s unlikely that the mining services recovery will scale greater heights while investor concerns about future activity persist.
High wages here to stay, says Hockey
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey plans to tell members of the business community that a Coalition government can do little to ease wage costs – and say Australia must adapt to compete globally.
according to the Australian Financial Review.
According to the Australian Financial Review, Hockey will deliver a speech today ruling out substantial industrial relations changes to ease wage pressures, with the argument it is of no national benefit and that “expensive labour” is not “a bad thing’’
“We can compete with higher wages provided our output per worker is globally competitive,’’ the Committee for Economic Development of Australia will be told.
“Australia’s standard of living must not go backwards. There is no national benefit in cutting wages.”
