Mining still tops salary selection

ALMOST two-thirds of the jobs offered in five of Australia’s key industries are now offering six-figure salaries.

In fact, an analysis of advertised salaries on job site Seek showed only one in four jobs in the mining, resources and energy sectors had a salary less than $100,000 in 2017.

The minerals industry topped the list of where to find the big bucks, followed by consulting and strategy (68 per cent), construction (67 per cent), engineering (64 per cent) and information technology (63 per cent).

Seek Australia managing director Kendra Banks said there were no big surprises among the top industries: “Australia’s primary industries are booming.

“Similarly, it won’t come as a shock to anyone in business that the vast majority of consulting and strategy roles command high salaries. It is significant that 67 per cent of construction roles advertised in the past 12 months also paid over $100,000.

“This is fairly evenly distributed across most roles and skills within the industry, from project management and site supervisors to health and safety roles and surveying.”

In the legal sector, 49 per cent of jobs overall paid more than $100,000, yet this jumped to 88 per cent for construction law roles. The data revealed just 3 per cent of admin and office job ads offered more than $100,000. Chances of a juicy wage were not much better for those in call centres and customer service (4 per cent), hospitality and tourism (5), retail and consumer products (7) or sports and recreation (9).