Flexibility and Upskilling the Key to Future Success in the Australian Labour Market

Considering changes to your workforce – expansion, restructuring, new skills? Job growth is forecast in some sectors at 20% according to the 2016 Australian Jobs publication by the Department of Employment which has recently been released with insights into the forecast of employment growth in each state; the industry structure, and forecast jobs in the future.

Having changed over the last century from a workforce highly dependent on agriculture and manufacturing to today’s economy where service-based industries are on the rise, it is no surprise that the current landscape of employment in Australia has changed significantly in the last 5 years.

Key takeout’s from the report include the significance of technology and training in employability, with “Australian’s needing to be literate, numerate and digitally literate. These capabilities will be basic requirements for most jobs.”

Strong growth is projected for the Construction industry, being the third largest industry in Australia and the vast majority of new jobs expected in Construction Services.

While there is a forecast decline in employment in the Manufacturing sector there is expected to be growth in some subsectors such as Food Product Manufacturing, Rail Transport and Agricultural Machinery and there are a number of specific roles with forecast growth for example in Professional, Scientific and Telecommunications.

The report does caution there are challenges for some industry sectors with digitisation, automation and new jobs requiring creativity, complex judgement, advanced reasoning, social interaction and emotional intelligence.

Head of Recruitment at Central Innovation, Ana Ferreira, says that future candidates in manufacturing and construction will need to be willing to be flexible in order to remain employable and ensure they are constantly improving on their skill set.

“For example, employers should consider focussing on employing candidates that have the required design and industry knowledge for the company and then provide training in the required software – we have seen a number of companies succeed when adopting this strategy.”

“With the technological advancements in Manufacturing and Construction there is a need for candidates to be up to date with a range of technology solutions and a much more varied skill set. For example in Manufacturing we are finding that there is now a much greater need for specialisation in advanced manufacturing and new technology. With Central Innovation also providing training in a number of software packages, we are acutely aware of the upskilling many designers require.”

Click to download the full report.