Ambit Group says its latest salary index shows engineering salaries have risen 3% nationally since last September. WA, Queensland and Victoria have led the charge, with those states offering the top remuneration levels for engineering professionals.
The Ambit Engineering Salary Index reflects hourly rates for contractors in engineering and related professions and is based on interviews with more than 3000 Ambit clients and candidates across Australia. The latest AESI shows more than 60% of engineering salaries in WA are either the highest or among the highest in Australia. Next is Queensland, followed by Victoria.
Ambit recruitment group spokesperson Peter Acheson said the dramatic lift in resources activity in WA and the spin off into the state's commercial and industrial construction sectors was driving salary increases. "Engineers in the West are fast getting to the point where they can name their price as demand for personnel exceeds supply," he said.
"To address this scarcity, WA's recruitment industry is now actively chasing up contractors interstate and overseas. However, for recruiters to do this successfully there is a need for companies – particularly mining companies - to begin sponsoring the relocation of engineers from overseas, something that is already reasonably commonplace in the oil and gas industry."
Ambit said salary increases in WA had primarily been in construction and minerals and mining. Construction managers in the construction industry are earning $75-100 per hour, construction managers on offshore oil and gas projects, $90-120phr, and mine managers, $80-100phr, in WA, it said.
In Queensland, the key concentration had been in industrial construction, mining/minerals, oil/gas and general construction. Construction managers in the construction industry are earning $70-85phr, construction managers on offshore oil and gas projects, $75-95, and mine managers, $65-80.
"In Queensland, we're seeing a plethora of projects either in progress or due to commence. This is seeing the demand for engineering personnel absolutely going through the roof," said Acheson.
"On the minerals/mining front, there is accelerated activity in gold, copper, coal, bauxite/alumina and nickel. A large alumina project in Far-North Queensland and a nickel processing plant upgrade are underway in north Queensland while a major nickel mining project is already ramping up and another is expected to kick-off in 2005.
"In the oil and gas industry, two major oil companies are currently upgrading their Brisbane refineries to comply with environmental legislation and work is under way for the tapping of coal seam methane gas in western Queensland.
"On the energy front there is major activity in power generation, transmission and supply – including the engineering, procurement, construction and management (EPCM) for new power stations and infrastructure upgrades in Queensland, Western Australia and New Zealand."
In Victoria, engineering and construction firms were paying higher salaries to woo engineers back into the state following a substantial lift in road, general infrastructure and offshore oil and gas activity.
"This is putting an emormous strain on resources, already depleted by engineers moving interstate," said Acheson. "In recent years the state has lost many engineers to WA and SA as well as to key rail projects in the Northern Territory and now more recently, Queensland. The cost of having to compete in an ever diminishing pool of talent, is not surprisingly pushing up the price of engineering professionals."
Acheson said there was now a much greater preparedness by both Victorian and Queensland-based businesses to fly in engineers from interstate each week and return them home on weekends.
Ambit Group is one of Australia's largest privately owned recruitment groups specialising in IT&T, engineering, executive, sales and marketing and professional recruitment. The group also provides IT&T, human resource and corporate alignment consulting services.
