30,000 mine staff wanted
THERE'S good news for unskilled jobhunters in Central Queensland with news the resource boom will need to find 30,000 workers over the next five years.
More than 13,000 of those will be unskilled operator jobs, according to the annual Heartbeat Report by sector-research firm Kinetic Group.
To keep up with the demand for those projects already earmarked for construction, the demand for staff will consume more than just chunks of the manufacturing and construction industries, the traditional poaching ground for mine companies.
Those areas of the state with a prolonged lull in building projects, including South-East Queensland, would be particularly ripe to supply labour.
But that may not be enough to sate demand.
According to the report, the river of workers flowing from depressed areas of the state will soon begin to dry up.
Kinetic chief executive Derek Hunter said the non-profit firm was working to show that the dwindling supply of workers was now reaching a critical point.
He said pressure to scoop up these workers would increase early next year.
"That is related to the (mining industry) growth spurt," Mr Hunter said. "I think we will have depleted a great deal of our industries and that resource will no longer be available.
"We need 30,000 just in mining for Queensland in five years.
"At least 45% of those will be operators - the need for haul truck training, those numbers are going to skyrocket." But many people desperately hunting for these jobs have been left bewildered by an apparent lack of opportunity.
Mr Hunter said as demand increased, so too would labour hire companies teaming up with training organisations to better train would-be staff.
"They are now partnering with registered training operators or becoming RTOs themselves," he said.
The Heartbeat Report is based on the employment records of 30,500 mining industry workers, supplied to Kinetic by nine mining giants operating in Queensland.
