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Category: Industry / Business, Economics and Finance / Unemployment

Boom to gloom as mining slowdown sees NT jobs dry up, report finds

Tuesday, 8 Mar 2016 13:45:00 | Nadia Daly

A worker drilling on a construction site. (ABC News)

Job prospects in the Northern Territory are bleak due to less employers looking for new staff, a new report by recruitment firm Manpower finds.

Key points:

  • NT net employment outlook down as less employers look to hire new staff
  • Hiring intentions fall 15 per cent in the NT compared to this time last year
  • Survey conducted by recruitment firm Manpower

The NT recorded the first negative net employment outlook (NEO) since the group's survey began in 2004.

Manpower's general manager Jamie Butterworth told the ABC the drop should not come as a shock.

"The decrease was mainly driven by an 18 per cent fall in non-dwelling construction, which isn't surprising coming out of the construction phase of the mining boom and the slowdown overall in mining," he said.

The Territory's NEO was minus 1 per cent for the next three months, compared to the national figure of 4 per cent.

Manpower's net employment outlook figure is calculated by subtracting the percentage of employers expecting to fire staff from the percentage expecting to hire.

While the majority of employers in the Territory were not looking to hire or fire in the next three months, 9 per cent were looking to take on new staff, and 11 per cent were intending to reduce their workforce.

"Hiring intentions in the Northern Territory have seen a considerable fall of 15 per cent when compared to the same time last year," the report stated.

The Territory's hospitality industry said the main impediment to growth was finding and retaining appropriately skilled staff.

The Australian Hotel Association's chief executive in the NT Des Crowe said many of its members struggled to fill job vacancies with a high turnover rate and the looming so-called backpacker tax scaring off temporary workers.

"In hospitality we're used to a high turnover of staff but we do have major concerns if the overseas backpacker market dries up about where we're going to source sufficient employees," Mr Crowe said.

The NT Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Business Peter Styles said despite the current employment outlook, the gas fracking industry would be the Territory's biggest jobs growth area in the future.

"The northern part of Australia has 90 per cent of the known gas reserved in Australia," he said.

However Mr Styles said the potential for that industry and Jemena's gas pipeline was in jeopardy because of NT Labor's proposed moratorium on fracking.

Broaden the economy, NT Government urged

Manpower said the Territory Government should work to diversify the economy beyond mining to sectors like tourism and defence spending.

Mr Butterworth said the Territory's unemployment rate was "still pretty low at 4 per cent" and welcomed the Government's recently announced economic stimulus package.

He said the Territory sits alongside the mining states of Queensland and Western Australia, who were both feeling the pain of the resources downturn.

However he said Queensland was faring the best, because of its ability to harness the tourism sector to cushion the blow.

"WA struggles even more at minus 16 per cent, which shows how much the state relies on mining," he said.

"Queensland still sits at 3 per cent, showing the state with the strongest tourism industry and low dollar has a more positive outlook."

The gloomy outlook reflects the national sentiment in the jobs market.

Across Australia hiring intentions were down to their lowest point in two-and-a-half years.

Western Australia reported the greatest fall in the hiring intentions of employers, at minus 16 per cent, while Victorian employers showed the most optimism with an 11 per cent net employment outlook.

Across Australia, the survey found the finance, insurance and real estate sectors were looking to employ more employees, while the mining and construction sector had the gloomiest outlook for hiring new employees.

Bladin Point gas processing facilities Photo: Workers at INPEX's Ichthys gas plant at Darwin's Bladin Point, which is moving towards the production phase of the project. (ABC News: James Purtill)

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