Flood recovery efforts look likely to delay the easing of labour supply pressures that Queensland’s building and construction sector was looking forward to this year.
Speaking at the Queensland Workforce Summit 2022 last week, Construction Skills Queensland (CSQ) chief executive Brett Schimming said the industry had been looking forward to some relief from the intense labour demand of the last 24 months.
However, a new wave of demand associated with flood insurance work was likely to further clog up the building pipeline and blow out delivery timelines.
Schimming said: “Queensland’s construction industry has been struggling to deliver an unprecedented volume of work with a surge in house building demand competing with strong commercial and infrastructure activity.
“HomeBuilder and other government incentives that were announced in response to COVID essentially threw the construction industry into overdrive.
“Queenslanders have borrowed billions to build new homes and there has also been a decent amount of renovation in the mix.
“At the same time, our commercial builders have been grappling with the largest pipeline of projects in a decade and decade-high government infrastructure commitments.
“It’s has been a perfect storm of demand, but there simply haven’t been enough construction workers in the state to meet this demand.”
Schimming said industry forecasts had pointed to an easing of the pressures on the home building sector later this year, as the industry finally breaks through the bottle neck of demand.
However, relief in South East Queensland was likely to be delayed by a new wave of demand associated with urgent flood rebuild work.
He continued: “CSQ is assessing the impact that this new surge of building work is going to have on existing workbooks and skills demand.
“Undoubtedly, there will be delays, and understandably the flood-recovery work is time-critical. People need to be able to get back into their homes and for those homes to be restored to a liveable condition.
“We will be developing a training funding program to fast-track skilled workers and tradies to urgently respond to this need.”
Schimming said one clear positive outcome of the building boom has been a record increase in trade apprentice sign-ups across the state.
“Queensland builders have gone on an apprentice buying spree since 2020 in an effort to keep up with their booming operations.
“More people have been signed-up for a construction apprenticeship in Queensland than at any other time on record.
“There are now more than 25,000 construction apprentices in-training across Queensland – the highest number ever recorded.
“This record increase has been spurred equally by government subsidies for hiring and keeping apprentices, as it has by the residential building boom.”
CSQ funding covers most and often all the costs of eligible training for workers and businesses in the construction industry.