ANZSCO 2321-11 Western Australia
Architect April 2017
Labour Economics Office Western Australia
Department of Employment
Current labour market rating No Shortage
Previous labour market rating (April 2016) No Shortage
Comments
Surveyed employers reported no difficulty attracting suitable and qualified applicants to vacancies and were able to fill 100 per cent of vacancies this year.
Survey results
· This year 100 per cent of surveyed vacancies were filled.
o In comparison, 40 per cent of vacancies were filled last year due to employers preferring to wait for their ideal candidate. The last time 100 per cent of vacancies were recorded for this survey was in 2010.
· The majority of vacancies surveyed were for positions in the metropolitan area, as advertised vacancies for Architects in regional areas were difficult to source.
· On average there were 23.7 applicants per vacancy with an average of 3.3 applicants per vacancy considered suitable by employers. Last year’s survey results were similar with employers reporting an average of 23.7 applicants per vacancy with 4.5 applicants per vacancy identified as suitable.
· Vacancies in the metropolitan area attracted 25.5 applicants per vacancy and 3.5 suitable applicants per vacancy.
· Employers sought Architects with experience in designing for the residential, commercial, transport, defense and education sectors.
· In general, employers required applicants to have knowledge of building codes, Australian standards and R-Codes.
· Furthermore, the majority of employers also required applicants to be proficient in the use of software such as AutoCAD, Revit, ARCHICAD and Sketchup.
Unsuitable applicants
· This year, surveyed employers found 80 per cent of qualified applicants to be unsuitable and reported that experience was a primary consideration when determining suitability.
o In the vast majority of cases applicants were considered unsuitable where they did not have sufficient overall experience or lacked experience designing for a particular sector, for example, the commercial or retail sector.
o Most vacancies also specified the need to work with industry relevant software. Applicants who did not hold these skills to the required standard were generally deemed unsuitable by employers.
Demand and supply trends
· Demand for Architects is cyclical and is subject to the volume of investment and activity in the construction and building industries.
· Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows total building approvals in Western Australia decreased by 11 per cent over the year to March 2017. [1]
· ABS data shows the value of construction work done in Western Australia decreased by 19 per cent over the 12 months to December 2016. [2]
· Department of Employment data shows a 9 per cent decrease in the number of advertisements for Architects in Western Australia over the year to March 2017.
· Data shows regular peaks and troughs over the last five years in the number of people employed in this occupation.[3]
· All Architects in Western Australia must be registered with the Architects Board of Western Australia after completion of a five year Bachelor or Masters of Architecture degree from an accredited Australian University (or approved equivalent), an approved period of practical experience, and the successful completion of the Architectural Practice Examination.
o In 2015 undergraduate course completions rose by 36 per cent from the previous year.[4]
· The number of registered Architects in Western Australia, sourced from The Architects Board of Western Australia Annual Reports 2012 to 2016 is provided below.[5]
Type of Registration / 12-13 / 13-14 / 14-15 / 15-16 /Practising / 1020 / 1071 / 1105 / 1116 /
Non-Practising / 201 / 200 / 222 / 241 /
Total / 1221 / 1271 / 1327 / 1357 /
% change from previous year / 4.1% / 4.4% / 2.3% /
Labour Economics Office Western Australia
Department of Employment
[1] ABS Building Approvals, Western Australia, Cat. 8731.0, Trend data
[2] ABS Construction Work Done, Western Australia, Preliminary, 8755, Table 8, Trend, December 2016.
[3] Department of Employment, Labour Force Data, 12 Month Average, Trend
[4] Department of Education and Training, Higher Education Student Data Collection, 2015, customised tables, Total Undergraduate Completions by Course Specialisation.
[5] Architects Board Annual Report 2015-16 accessed 10/8/2017