Infrastructure Australia Reveals Surge in Industry Demand

According to the newly published Infrastructure Market Capacity report by Infrastructure Australia, a huge surge of demand for skills, labour, plant and materials has been revealed.

Due to the increase in public infrastructure investment, there is a strong need to advance sector-wide reform. By 2023, employment must grow by over 60% or 1 in 3 advertised positions will remain unfulfilled.

The report also calls for a coordinated project pipeline for both industry and government, to manage capacity constraints. The peak demand for skills is 48% higher than supply and over the next 3 years, there will be: 120% growth in demand for materials, 125% growth in demand for equipment and 140% growth in demand for plant.

Key reforms are required, as stated by the 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan published to action and address these industry challenges. It calls not only for pipeline management but also front-end engineering, digital practices and increased public sector capacity and capability.

The Market Capacity Program monitors and reports on the capacity of Australia’s infrastructure market and the second phase is set to be published by June 2022.