National Water Skills Audit - Australian Water Association

5 Outcomes/Issues5.1 Current Needs and GapsA first order estimate of water industry employee needsand gaps is determined by the combination of the WSAAsurvey and the May 2008 survey (non-WSSA members)conducted for this Skills Audit. This is presented in Figure5.1, showing a total of 44,442 employees and a gap of5,109.The WSAA survey determined a most likely scenario ofa current and short-term aggregate workforce of 19,500with an estimated gap of 3,100 positions at 2009. Figure5.1 shows the 3,100 gap as the WSAA report does notprovide an estimate for 2007 or 2008. As the WSAAsurvey was conducted in 2007 an estimate of 1,550 hasbeen made for current (2008) vacancies, being half of the3,100. This 1,550 estimate is used in section 5.2 whichaddresses the gaps from current employment to theprojected 2018 requirements for the water industry as awhole, thus requiring a consistent estimate of a currentgap from both the WSAA survey and the 2008 survey.The May 2008 survey determined an estimatedemployment total of 22,933, comprising a widerpopulation of the water sector but excluding WSAAmembers, and requiring 2,009 additional employees tofill vacancies.This first order estimate is considered to be low asnot all of the water sector has been included in thecombination of the WSAA and the May 2008 surveys.For example, Commonwealth government employeeshave not been included and the water sector includesmany other organisations as discussed and illustratedsection 2.1.The analysis of Census data provides a secondaryanalysis of the scale of the industry. In the Australianand New Zealand Standard Industry Classification(ANZIC) the economic activities of the water industry aregenerally included in the following two industry classes:Water Supply (ANZSIC code 2811), and Sewerage andDrainage Services (ANZSIC code 2812).However, there is range of business activity that may notbe predominantly related to water but is nevertheless acritical provider of services to water infrastructure. Thisoccurs mainly in the Other Heavy and Civil EngineeringConstruction (ANZSIC code 3109) category, thoughothers are likely to be relevant.An estimate of total employment in the three industrysectors which are either predominantly to do with waterindustry or provide substantial input to it in Australiain 2006 gives a total of 55,000 people. Of these,32,540 are in the Other Heavy and Civil EngineeringConstruction category, for which data on the percentagein water-related activity is not available.Nevertheless there are a number of factors which,whilst speculative and not measured at this stage, leadto a much higher estimate of the scale of the currentwater industry. These factors include anecdotal evidencefrom people with a large degree of knowledge basedon experience in the industry, that the surveys do notinclude requirements from Commonwealth and Stategovernment departments and agencies and othersignificant segments, and that there is a large numberof other job categories which are known to be relevantto employees in the water industry but are not includedin the estimates based on Census data. Examples ofcategories not included are for jobs in instrumentation,control systems and information and communicationsFigure 5.1: Total employment and vacanciesEmployees50,00045,00040,00035,00030,00025,00020,00015,00010,0005,00003,10016,4002,00922,9335,10939,333WSAA 2007 Survey May 2008 Survey Total Surveyed(2007 and 2008)Current WorkforceVacancies58 ICE WaRM • National Skills Audit (Phase One) Report