Building jobs on slide

Young leading way but building still lags

LATEST employment figures show construction work is on the slide as jobs in the sector have still not regained the heights of pre-GFC numbers.

Analysts say a peak of about 11,000 jobs was reached this time last year and is still below the 13,000 in the industry before 2008.

Unemployment is now 6.5 per cent in the Far North.

YOUNG people and those with a career in health continue to be the big winners in the Cairns job market, but construction has still not hit the highs reached prior to 2008.

New Conus/CBC Staff Selection employment trend data for Cairns showed over the past 12 months most new employment has come from the youth demographic, up 5500 positions.

Middle-aged workers how- ever showed a drop of 7100, leading analysts to agree the unemployment rate in the city had stabilised.

“At the industry level the data you get is quarterly, and it is only up to May … but it does appear on a number of levels construction jobs peaked this time last year,” Conus Business Consultancy Services partner Pete Faulkner said

“It’s still relatively small but there has been some decline. I think it’s worth bearing in mind, even allowing for (a discrepancy in data), if you go back to the construction sector pre-GFC you were looking at about 13,000 jobs, now we are looking at about 11,000.

“The reality is the construction sector still isn’t back to what it was like before the GFC slump.”

In contrast, health has more than doubled to 19,000 positions in 10 years.

Mr Faulkner said volatile data over the past year was becoming less common, indicating the Far North job market was “settling down”.

Herron Todd White research consultant Rick Carr agreed.

“The unemployment rate is up compared to last year, but that said I agree we have been through the worst, and unemployment has steadied and started to reduce in recent months,” Mr Carr said. “The decline in construction workers doesn’t gel with our perceptions on the ground and must surely be a statistical anomaly.

“Our own take on construction employment in the last CairnsWatch showed construction employment up 18.4 per cent over the last two years – though admittedly most of that increase was in the first 12 months of the period.”