Calling all engineers

It’s been predicted there will be a huge demand for skilled engineers in New Zealand over the next five years, particularly with the rebuild of Christchurch (1). The earthquakes have led to a “mini-boom” for the engineering industry.

Hays, the biggest recruitment company in New Zealand for engineers, have reported that the rebuild of Christchurch will have a considerable impact on the construction and engineering sectors, with increased demand for CAD drafters, highway design engineers, civil engineers, structural engineers and geotechnical engineers. To fill this employment void, they have been recruiting engineers from overseas; as engineers will often have international careers and their qualifications are universally recognised.

One challenge of attracting engineers to New Zealand from overseas is that salaries here are considerably lower than they are in the same sector in other countries such as Australia or the UAE. A further challenge presents itself in the form of the booming mining industry and, in particular, in the form of BHP Billiton who have recently posted a net profit of US$21.7 billion ($27.8 billion) for the 2011 year - an impressive 73% increase on last year’s profits (2).

They are expanding their output to meet increased demand from China and India, and to support this growth they are looking to do some serious recruitment:

“Mining giant BHP Billiton has released new forecasts, predicting the nation's resources sector will need 170,000 extra workers over the next five years. The prediction is almost 60% higher than figures given by a government forecast last year. The new figures come amid concerns the resources industry will face major skills shortages in coming years.” (3)

Putting that figure into some context – that’s larger than the population of New Zealand’s 4th largest city, Hamilton!

It’s likely that BHP Billiton will have to look to other sectors to meet their employment needs and the chances are the engineers will be the first to go.

Competition for “top talent” retention in New Zealand just got a whole lot harder.

Catherine Lloyd