ANZSCO 2321-11 New South Wales
Architect April 2017
Labour Economics Office New South Wales
Department of Employment
Current labour market rating Shortage
Previous labour market rating (March 2016) Metropolitan shortage
Comments
There is a shortage of architects across all sectors surveyed including residential, aged care and education construction. Surveyed employers indicate that, due to increased demand, they require experienced architects and do not have the capacity to invest in the development and training of applicants for non-entry level roles.
Survey results
· The Survey of Employers who have Recently Advertised (SERA) was conducted for the occupation of architect in April 2017.
· Overall, 47 per cent of surveyed vacancies were filled (compared with 58 per cent in 2016 and 91per cent in 2015). Recruitment for this occupation has tightened in NSW over the past two years, with employers surveyed from 2012 through to 2015 generally able to fill their architect vacancies with ease.
· There was an average of 15.9 applicants per vacancy, with 13.6 per vacancy being qualified architects (though this figure is boosted by several employers who had particular large numbers of applicants apply).
· There were low numbers of suitable applicants, with employers generally considering less than one applicant per vacancy to be suitable (0.8 compared with 1.5 in 2016).
o The average number of suitable applicants per vacancy in this year’s survey was lower than the average for the previous five years (1.7).
· Despite regional vacancies generally attracting more qualified applicants per vacancy than their metropolitan counterparts (17.3 compared with 11.6), Sydney-based employers filled a greater portion of their vacancies than those in regional NSW (55 per cent compared with 33per cent).
· The Department surveyed vacancies across a range of architectural firms including those specialising in residential, commercial, health, aged care, education and industrial construction.
· Most employers required successful applicants to have multiple years of practical experience (this included a number of vacancies advertised for “recent graduates”).
o Additionally, employers had a preference for experience that was gained in the area in which they principally operate as they generally did not consider experience to be transferable between sectors.
· Surveyed employers frequently sought applicants who had a high level of proficiency with the Building Information Management software programs used by the firm. These included Revit, AutoCAD, ArchiCAD and SketchUp.
o They were generally unwilling to train in this area and applicants who did not have this experience were often not considered by the employer.
o Additionally, some employers required successful applicants to be familiar with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
· It was a requirement for all positions that the suitable applicant had a current and working knowledge of Australian building standards.
· Few employers were seeking registered architects (slightly less than 10 per cent of employers surveyed).
· This occupation has been rated as being in shortage which is consistent with more than half of all surveyed vacancies being unable to be filled and having less than one suitable applicant per vacancy.
Unsuitable applicants
· Around 94 per cent of qualified applicants were considered to be unsuitable.
o These applicants were considered to be unsuitable if they lacked the minimum level of experience required for the role (this included a number of recent graduates as well as overseas trained architects with the right to work in Australia but having insufficient local experience), did not have the sector specific experience required or were not proficient in the software used by the architectural firm.
o The small number of employers recruiting registered architects considered all architects without registration to be unsuitable.
Demand and supply trends
· Demand for architects has been influenced by strong building activity across the state.[1]
o Preliminary data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics indicate total residential building grew by 20.8 per cent over the year to 2016 (following an increase of 14.1 per cent over the previous year).
o Non-residential work increased by 5.0 per cent over the same period (following growth of 2.7percent over the previous year).
· The most recent available data from the NSW Architects Registration Board is from the 2014-15 annual report. This shows the number of practising architects located in NSW was 3330 in 2014-15, which was 9.2per cent higher than the average of around 3050 over the previous four years.[2]
· The number of newly registered architects in NSW was 321 in 2014-15, which was similar to 201314 and an increase of 62 per cent in comparison with the average of 198 over the previous four years.[3]
o The number of newly registered architects who were overseas qualified average 26perannum over the three years to 2014-15 or about 10 per cent of new registrations.
· Around 90 domestic students completed postgraduate qualifications in architecture for NSW universities in 2015, although this is around 25 per cent less than the average for the five years to 2014.[4]
· There were around 90 primary applicant 457 temporary skilled migration visas granted for civil engineering professionals in 2016-17 (compared to an average around 40 per annum over the three years ending 2015-16).[5] Note that the visas are only for four years and there is no automatic conversion to permanent residency.
Other indicators and issues
· Employers attributed a lack of suitable applicants to an increase in the demand for architects as a result of elevated activity levels across the NSW building and construction sectors over the past several years.
o Due to this increase in demand, employers generally indicated they do not have the capacity to invest in the development and training of applicants for non-entry level roles.
· A recent survey of architectural firms indicated that seven out of every 10 firms expect to increase staff numbers though the 2017 calendar year, whilst six in 10 expect to experience skill shortages. [6]
Labour Economics Office New South Wales
Department of Employment
[1] ABS, Construction Work Done, Preliminary, December 2016, Table 4, chain volume measures, original data.
[2] Estimate based on data published in various NSW Architects Registration Board annual reports.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Department of Education, Higher Education Student Data Collection, 2015, customised tables.
[5] Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Subclass 457 visas granted pivot table, https://data.gov.au/dataset/visa-temporary-work-skilled, accessed 21 July 2017.
[6] Heaton, Andrew, “What Does the Employment Market Hold for Architects in 2017?”, Sourceable, https://sourceable.net/employment-market-hold-architects-2017/, accessed 2 May 2017.