Media Release - 14 September 2007
Queensland mining leads to boom in sales and marketing jobs
Queensland has 20% of the working population and is now the fastest growing State in terms of people moving there for the lifestyle and favourable job opportunities.
Businesses are growing due to the Queensland Government providing significant advantages in a bid to encourage industry into the State – and into Brisbane in particular. As a result, there is a 0.2% vacancy rate in terms of office space.
This growth has had a flow-on effect for professional skills, with global recruitment firm Michael Page International experiencing a huge demand for people in engineering, accounting and, more recently, a strong push for sales and marketing skills – largely due to the growth for business services connected to the mining boom.
National sales and marketing director Jonathan Wiles said it has been the broader appetite for these type of roles that led his firm to set up a specialist sales and marketing division in Brisbane with six people recruited in the past two months and 15 staff in total within the next 12 months. He said this sales and marketing division will be the largest for any recruitment firm in Australia and “shows the scope of growth in Queensland”.
“Queensland continues to grow at a rapid pace in the corporate sector with large organisations such as Virgin Blue, Bank of Queensland, Suncorp, Queensland Investment Corporation and key mining groups such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata – all needing professional skills including engineers, accountants, lawyers and sales and marketing,” Mr Wiles said.
Mining alone has generated tremendous demand for business specialists right across the board. There are 48 operational coal mines and over 100 significant mineral mines in Queensland, with its mineral and petroleum production for 2005-2006 generating $22.5 billion for the State’s economy according to the latest figures from the Department of Mines and Energy.
He said the mining boom has had a direct impact on the demand for business services – now a key recruitment market for Michael Page in Queensland. He said this follows financial services and to a lesser extent the consumer market – the latter of which is a key recruitment source for regional Queensland.
“There has been consistent recruitment from marketing and communications through to research and analysis and specialist roles like direct marketing and CRM (customer relationship managers), with an increased demand for sales roles across the State from account managers to field people.
“Queensland’s continued economic growth depends on the success of its corporate sector, but many companies are constrained because they don’t have the skilled workforce to support this growth.
“As this growth continues, more organisations are finding it a struggle to attract and retain talented professional staff. This is a problem given the current climate of skills shortages and it means companies have to be more strategic about where and how they hire their people,” Mr Wiles said.
Contact
Jason Hemens – Corporate Communications Manager
Ph: 02 8292 2094
Email: jasonhemens@michaelpage.com.au
About Michael Page International
Michael Page International is a leading professional recruitment consultancy specialising in the recruitment of permanent, contract and temporary positions on behalf of the world’s top employers. The consultancy operates through 141 offices in 24 countries and employs more than 4,300 people. Australian operations began in 1985 and the office network has since expanded to include Sydney, Chatswood, Parramatta, Melbourne, Wheelers Hill, Brisbane and Perth.
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