A shortage of skilled workers has become the top concern for Queensland’s leading resource company chief executive officers, according to a survey compiled by the Queensland Resources Council (QRC).
The survey, contained within the QRC’s quarterly State of the Sector report, tracks CEO sentiment across a range of metrics to generate a broad gauge of the factors and trends impacting the mining sector.
It shows that 77 per cent of member CEOs believe demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates will increase over the next five years.
In line with this, attracting and retaining skilled employees now sits above the issue of social license to operate and uncertain regulation as the chief area of concern for the sector’s industry captains.
A number of factors have coalesced in recent months to put pressure on the supply of skilled labour.
To begin with, the absence of a clear STEM pipeline funnelling workers to mining companies runs concurrently alongside supply disruptions brought on by interstate and international travel restrictions.
This lack of supply has emerged at a moment of escalating growth in the sector.
New coal mines across Central Queensland are coming online as benchmark September contracts for thermal coal hit $US179 per tonne, while coking coal has exploded to over $US350 per tonne.
“With coal prices high, there are more projects and operations ramping up and drawing on the talent pool making it more challenging to attract and retain,” a QRC member states in the report.
The Minerals Council of Australia Commodity Demand Outlook 2030 also suggests a promising future for Australia’s resources sector, including coal, which might in turn keep demand for skilled workers at an elevated pitch.
Its outlook for metallurgical coal is ranked as ‘good’, with seaborne metallurgical coal demand expected to rise from 295 Mt in 2019 to 365 Mt in 2030.
“Demand will primarily be driven by India and Southeast Asia, economies that not only have strong population growth but a rapidly growing appetite for steel in infrastructure, cars and consumers goods,” the report reads.
The outlook for thermal coal is positioned between ‘good’ and ‘neutral.’
“Commodity Insights forecasts demand for imported coal to increase 23.5 per cent by 2030 – from 947 Mt in 2019 to 1170 Mt in 2030,” the report reads.
QRC Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane noted in a press release from Tuesday that the number of jobs in Queensland’s resources sector had increased by more than two-thirds over the past five years to reach a record high of almost 85,000 earlier this year.
“Looking forward, jobs growth over the next five years is likely to continue due to increasing global demand for traditional resources like coal, base metals and gas plus the growing demand for new economy minerals such as cobalt, graphite, vanadium and rare earths which are being used to build everything from microchips to electric vehicles,” he said.
To meet this challenge, more than one quarter of CEOs said they were considering funding or undertaking programs to increase student interest in STEM fields and 78 per cent said industry must work with government and other stakeholders to develop new strategies for securing the sector’s talent pipeline.
Hunger for skills means handsome salaries for workers able to meet the demand.
According to the latest SEEK employment data, there are currently more than 1,300 resources jobs on offer in Queensland, with over 70 percent paying upwards of $100,000 per year.
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