Australia wins battle of job expos, hands down

The gulf between Australian and New Zealand job opportunities has become so great that the organiser of a national job expo has had to separate the two.

Custom Employment Events owner Jason Clayton said when the New Zealand Job and Career Expo was launched in 2007 an even mix of employers from both countries took part, with several industries that had a presence in each country often exhibiting together. facing stiff competition from the mining sector, is targeting laid-off skilled specialists from overseas militaries, including New Zealand by offering citizenship after just three months of service.

Jason Clayton, owner of Custom Employment Events that runs the Oz Jobs Expo, said he had no doubt many of those who lost their positions in the public sector could find employment in Australia.

‘‘With the development that goes on in Australia, there’s a lot of infrastructure work to be done so a lot of opportunities at local state and government level.’’

The powerful Australian economy was being driven by the mining sector, with benefits spilling through to the wider economy.

But, over the past few years, job opportunities in Australia had exploded while the recession had led to a dwindling number in New Zealand.

Wages had increased steadily in Australia and the Australian dollar was now worth much more than it was a few years ago, he said.

In 2010, Mr Clayton launched the Oz Job Expo to cater for solely Australian jobs and this year will run two of the expos as ‘‘people were

He cited the Olympic Dam mine north of Adelaide as an example, which will become the largest open-cast mine in the world when completed.

There would be a need for ‘‘thousands and thousands’’ of people to work on the project and to provide services for those workers and their families. They would include teachers, medical staff and retail and hospitality workers.

Even New Zealand prostitutes are in high demand, with an Australian report saying that sex workers were earning up to $2000 a night after arriving in booming mining towns.

Medrecruit managing director Sam Hazledine said demand for doctors was huge in Australia, only coming to see the Australian employers’’.

But while there were droves of Kiwis looking for opportunities in Australia, he predicted things would swing back eventually.

‘‘The thing is, the way New Zealand is at the moment, my view is that there comes a point in time when opportunities will start to appear more broadly . . . and the hammer will come down on people moving back.’’ with 460 books.

It was placing about 10 New Zealand doctors a month in jobs in Australia and many were opting for long-term positions rather than the quick ‘‘weekend warrior’’ work that was popular a year ago.

‘‘The jobs are there and there’s no question that, if they want the job, we can place them.’’

Unions were also aware of the increase in recruitment by Australian companies. Rail and Maritime Union national secretary Wayne Butson said all specialised workers in the rail industry, including drivers, were being lured away.

Australian grain company Watco had recently been in New Zealand holding recruitment

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