Mining labor shortage could affect growth within industry
Posted by
Mark Bese on Fri, Aug 26, 2011 @ 06:20 AM
An emerging mining trend is the fact that many of the new projects that have been proposed within the industry are short of a necessary commodity, manpower. While there has been growth within the sector, the availability of workers has not kept up with the demand.
Several regions of the world have seen significant shortages of the number of available men and women who are willing to work in the industry, something that may affect the overall growth of large mining companies and could inhibit exploration trends that are favoring sector expansion.
Australian mining companies have been reporting significant gains in revenue in recent history, but further growth could be hampered by a lack of workers, according to the Australia Herald Sun.
"Australia can capitalize on its gas and mineral wealth but we will be constrained by labor," David Stewart, chief executive officer of Leighton, told the news source. The CEO went on to note, "That is a terrible outcome for Australia. We are seeing production declining significantly from projects."
There has been competition between the mining and agricultural industries in the country for workers, as increased mining exploration permits have outpaced the supply of workers, a mining trend that could continue for decades, according to Queensland Country Life.
The Australian mining companies are not the only businesses that have been affected by the emerging mining labor trends, as a shortage of workers in the U.S. has hampered that market as well.
A Fitch Ratings report outlined the lack of workers that are available to U.S. mining companies, as this could affect the mining profits that these businesses are able to post. This development could also have a profound impact on the potential for increased exploration, according to the Huffington Post.
The inability of these companies to find qualified workers may seem like a problem that is easy to fix in the current economy, but it has persisted due to a mismatch between laborer skills and employer demand, reported the news source.
Numbers from the Fitch Report have shown that there were more than 23,000 openings within the industry in May, and the sector has added more than 115,000 jobs since October 2009. The report also notes that labor inflation could affect this mining trend further, according to the Post.