According to the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), the state’s resources sector has hundreds of job vacancies from Townsville and Mt Isa in the North, to Toowoomba and Roma in the South and in the nation’s biggest mining town Brisbane.

QRC Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane said there were currently close to 1,400 Queensland job vacancies in mining, resources and energy on the employment website SEEK.

“To borrow the famous quote from Lord Kitchener, ‘we want you’ to apply for a job in resources and fill these vacancies,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“Jobs in the resources sector are good jobs. Resource jobs are well-paid jobs. The mining industry has by far the highest average weekly full-time adult earnings of any industry at $2659 – or over $138,000 per annum.

“Our sector continues to drive economic opportunities both in the regions and the larger cities and if we are to maintain this momentum and increase royalties the sector needs people operating the machinery, loading the ships and working with communities.”

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) labour force data revealed the sector was creating a job every hour or 8400 new jobs over the last 12 months.

QRC’s March quarter State of the Sector report found jobs growth in the coal, minerals, petroleum and gas industries were very strong with a survey of chief executive officers (CEOs) of QRC member companies finding 52 per cent would increase their Queensland workforce over the next 12 months, with 13 per cent looking to increase employment ‘substantially.’ Only 9 per cent of CEOs surveyed said they planned to reduce staff over the next 12 months, with none of the CEOs expecting a substantial decrease.

The Queensland resources sector supports more than 280,000 full-time jobs and contributed over $55 billion to the State’s economy in 2016/17.

Source: www.qrc.org.au