The top nationalities of Engineers we placed in Australia in 2022

australia, consultanz, recruitment, skilled migrants, visas,

December 8, 2022

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Find out the top nationalities of civil engineering candidates we placed with our Australian clients in 2022.

While Australia has ambitious plans for infrastructure, a lack of skilled workforce has been a top challenge for Employers in 2022. The country has always relied heavily on migrant engineers (over 50% of Australia’s engineering workforce was born overseas), so when the COVID-19 pandemic shut the borders for two years, the industry found itself amidst the worst-ever skill shortage crisis.

With projections from Infrastructure Australia showing a deficit of 93,000 people across the engineering and construction sectors in the next three years, the war for talent is no longer a buzzword but an everyday reality for both large companies and small contractors.

Luckily, the Australian borders have fully re-opened, and although there are delays in processing visas, international Engineering and Construction candidates are slowly returning Down Under. Now is a good time to tap into this talent pool if you are struggling to find staff!

Here are the top nationalities of Candidates we placed with our Australian clients in 2022:

1. Australia
2. South Africa
3. United Kingdom
4. Fiji and Sri Lanka
5. Nepal, Hong Kong, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Romania, The Philippines

* based on ConsultANZ JobAdder placement stats for 2022

How we recruited in 2022

While 2022 has been a great year for the recruitment industry, it came with many challenges. In a market with the lowest unemployment since 1974, finding talent for our clients meant utilising various approaches such as headhunting, executive search, utilization of our existing CRM database (over 100,000 individual records) as well as engaging with potential candidates via our website (15,000 visitors a month), our bi-weekly newsletter (over 50,000 subscribers) and LinkedIn (113,000 page followers and more than 62,000 industry connections).

Having a pipeline of pre-interviewed, qualified candidates from offshore and partnering with immigration experts meant that when Australian borders re-opened, we were ready to bring many Civil Engineers over in a short period of time.

It’s not a surprise that the least useful tool for recruiting candidates in 2022 were job boards such as Indeed and SEEK. Only a small percentage of our successful Candidates were identified through this recruitment approach.

What the future holds – 2023

We predict 2023 will be even busier for engineering recruitment agencies! With many major infrastructure projects just awarded, the war for talent will continue. International recruitment will also ramp up as many overseas-qualified Engineers are resuming their plans to start a new life Down Under.

In 2023, ConsultANZ will continue proactive recruitment, meaning we aim to locate the right candidate before an open vacancy becomes critical.

About ConsultANZ

Established in 2012, ConsultANZ is a family-owned business and a niche supplier of temporary, contract and permanent engineering and associated staffing solutions to the engineering and construction industries in Australia and New Zealand.

We help main contractors, consultancies and civil engineering specialists find the best candidates for permanent and contract/temporary positions.

At ConsultANZ, we partner with immigration consultants who are experts in securing working visas for civil engineering and construction staff. Because we have been recruiting internationally for many years, we already have substantial pipelines of hard-to-find, pre-interviewed candidates keen to start a new life Down Under.

By partnering with visa experts, we also make the recruitment process efficient and seamless for our clients. We have a track record and capacity to deliver as few as 1 or as many as 40 placements on large infrastructure projects.

If you want to know more about this solution, contact our Director, Peter Laver on LinkedIn.

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