Last week Australia’s first FIFO (i.e. fly-in, fly-out) Coordinator was appointed in Cairns, with the task of matching locals to FIFO job opportunities in the resources sector (FIFO Coordinator based in Cairns). Based on the ongoing sluggishness in the Far North’s labour market, and projections of massive jobs growth in the resources sector, the FIFO Coordinator is likely to be very busy. Regarding projections of massive jobs growth, today’s Mackay Daily Mercury reports on a new Queensland Resources Council study (Demand for workers to soar):

GET ready for Boom Mark II – Queensland’s resource sector will need 40,000 workers as $142 billion worth of projects come on line in the next nine years.

However, almost 32,000 of the workers will be non-residents, according to a Queensland Resource Council (QRC) Growth Outlook Study.

QRC chief executive Michael Roche said those workers would be sourced from regions around Queensland; however, that shouldn’t detract from the growth pressures mining towns would face.

He said resource communities were still feeling the strain of the last growth surge and there was limited, if any, appetite for another round given lagging infrastructure and social service funding from governments.

“However, Bowen Basin resource project developers are currently factoring in an almost 25% increase in their residential workforce from the current 17,700 to an estimated 21,900 by 2020,” he said.

“Over the same period, the number of non-resident resource industry workers in the Bowen Basin could rise from 7300 to 20,000 under a full growth scenario. By 2020, just over half the Bowen Basin resources workforce is forecast to be locally based. However, that should not detract from the fact that few regions anywhere in the country are likely to face population growth pressures of the magnitude projected for towns in that region.”