Job cuts among building and engineering professionals appears to be peaking thanks to a host of major federal and state infrastructure projects across Australia, according to the June quarter Clarius Skills Index. The Index is a measure of underlying demand and supply of skilled labour and showed the professional and associate professional categories each recorded an oversupply of 1,000 workers.

While skilled labour demand continued to decline over the three month period, the falls were nowhere near as dramatic as the March quarter. Building and engineering professionals, which includes architects, surveyors and civil engineers, fell in June to 99.4, down from 100.7 for the March quarter. This was significantly down from the high demand 104.1 Index figure at this time last year. Associate professionals fell less heavily from 102.7 last June to also reach 99.4 in the “balanced” category.

A score of 100 indicates equal tension between labour supply and demand. Anything greater than 105 on the skills shortage side of the Index is regarded as extreme. A score of 95 to 98 is moderate.Engineering and construction recruitment specialists SouthTech Personnel’s Nathan Crawford-Condie says the slowing Index figures reflect the first signs of an upturn they are now experiencing in the market as various infrastructure projects across Australia start to move.

“The main demand has been in infrastructure, roads and water projects and buildings at schools, health centres and aged care facilities," says Crawford-Condie. "With a commitment at both federal and state level to large scale projects the flow-on effect into the market is yet to be fully realised. Even when the green light is given on these projects the anticipated employment impact will be structured in line with the different stages of the projects.”

The national school building fund from the federal government has had a positive impact on engineering consultancies and building contractors, although the project work is relatively small and will dry up by the end of the year. However, residential building remains robust, which has been broadly attributed to the increased government first home-buyer grants set to be reduced later in the year, and can be expected to tail into mid 2010.

The Clarius Skills Index analyses labour demand against supply across 19 occupation-specific categories, using labour force data supplied by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Index was established with its subsidiary SouthTech Personnel and developed by KPMG Econtech as an economy-wide assessment of skilled labour trends.