Report highlights hot spots for jobs in Australia​

Nurses, accountants and IT developers are among the candidates in hottest demand in Australia along with boiler makers, fitters and engineers in the resources industry, according to the latest Hays Quarterly Report. The report, which covers January to March 2013, shows that there are clearly pockets of shortages for specific skills in a number of sectors including healthcare and IT.

However, employers are particular about who they are seeking. 'Whilst these skills are in hot demand, employers remain cautious about hiring candidates that appear to have moved around too often,' said Simon Winfield, senior regional director of Hays in Western Australia.

'Employers want candidates with a proven and stable background, and some are willing to wait to find the exact match. In terms of long term solutions some employers are interested in candidates that can take a step up to fill a role rather than have someone more senior take a step back,' he explained.

Demand is highest for accountants across the board including in commerce and industry, the public sector and in professional practices. There are also openings for senior architects, landscape architects, and in banking, including lending managers, clients services specialists, senior financial planners and in mortgage support and compliance.

In construction there are opportunities in New South Wales for senior contract administrators, general foremen/women, project engineers, and estimators. In the Northern Territories there are vacancies for surveyors, supervisors, safety officers and estimators. Western Australia needs commercial construction estimators, residential construction estimators, contract administrators, project managers and senior site managers.
Quote from the AustraliaForum.com : "I always thought that the skill shortage list for Australia and NZ would be the same, however, it seems that I was wrong in that. Does anybody know if the Restaurant Manager position is on the skill shortage list of Australia as well? I can only find Hotel and Motel Manager. Does this fall under the same category, or is this just for actual General Managers of Hotels?"
In the mining sector there has been a lot of talk about cut backs but many are still paying top wages. There is a demand for mechanical engineers, for example, and Hays says that although orders are slow, investment is still being put in to product development. There is also a demand for project engineers, both mechanical and civil and project managers on a regional basis. Also as sites get bigger the need for health and safety specialists has increased.

In the Northern Territory there is a specific need for electrical, fixed plant, reliability and mining engineers. 'The need for these candidates is due to a skill shortage in the state as more sites look to have their workforce based here they are finding it difficult to have the right candidates relocate,' says the report.

In Queensland there is a shortage of good experienced candidates in the maintenance sector and for high voltage electricians. Senior mine geologists, mining engineers, contract mining engineers, process managers and maintenance supervisors are all needed for mining sites in Western Australia.

'Continued operation and profitability of key assets for mining organisations is the highest priority at present,' the report adds.