Could mining job candidates who struggle to find a new job only have themselves to blame because they refuse to upskill?
Could mining job candidates who struggle to find a new job only have themselves to blame because they refuse to upskill?
New data from the latest Mining People Polling/Media Centre survey reveals many candidates refuse to undertake extra training in order to secure a mining job, even if they’re being knocked back for jobs because they don’t have the skills required.
The data reveals the phenomenon is consistent across the board—whether candidates have many years of experience or they’re looking for their first start in the industry.
What’s it like looking for a mining job in 2022?
First, let’s look at who the 120 people were who answered the questions.
We asked them how long they’d been looking for a mining job.
- 5% - Less than a week
- 7% - Less than a month
- 5% - Between one and three months
- 5% - Three to six months
- 8% - Longer than six months.
What stands out immediately is the large proportion—more than a third—who have been looking for a mining job for a prolonged period of time. We must caveat this data, though, by saying we didn’t ask whether respondents were currently employed and looking for a new position (and potentially waiting for the perfect role) or whether they were currently unemployed. (But we do have the ability to dig into the data somewhat, and we’ll do that in a moment.)
We also wanted to get a clear picture of the skills and experience levels of those in the job market. Here’s what we learned.
How much experience do you have in the mining industry?
- 2% - I’m looking for my first start
- 5% - I have less than two years’ experience
- 5% - I have two to five years’ experience
- 3% - I have more than five years’ experience.
Do you have a mining-related qualification?
- 3% - Yes
- 7% - No.
The first thing you’ll notice from the above data is that respondents fall broadly into two groups: those looking for their start, and those with a great deal of experience (mid-career and later).
Long career, long job search
But it’s when we start cross-referencing these results that things begin to get really interesting. Look what happens when we ask those with more than five years’ experience how long they’ve been looking for a mining job.
I have more than five years’ experience. I have been looking for a mining job:
- 5% - Less than a week
- 4% - Less than a month
- 4% - Between one and three months
- 5% - Three to six months
- 2% - Longer than six months.
The figure that stands out above is obvious. It seems that experienced people are being left on the shelf. We wondered why. Fortunately, we’d also asked a few helpful questions that allow us to narrow down this phenomenon that sees those with more than five years’ experience struggling to secure a role. Here’s what we found.
We asked them how many jobs they’d been knocked back for during their current search:
- 29% - One to five jobs
- 19% - Six to 10 jobs
- 7% - 10 to 20 jobs
- 25% - More than 20 jobs.
Why are more-experienced candidates missing out on mining jobs?
It’s not that these people are experienced but don’t have a suitable qualification. We asked the more-experienced respondents if they had a mining-related qualification, and 87.5% said they did.
We asked if they were willing to move to a residential mining town to get a job, and 91.7% of them said they were (another 4% already lived in a residential mining town).
We asked respondents if they thought ageism was a factor in their inability to secure a mining job. Two thirds said no, one third said yes.
The last question we asked was whether candidates with more than five years’ experience were willing to undergo training in order to secure a new job. It’s here we might have stumbled across the root of the problem. Of those who had been looking for a job for more than six months, two thirds said they were unwilling to train; only a third said yes.
In fact, an unwillingness to train in order to secure a job was the single most common factor across all the groups, no matter how long they’d been looking for a mining job.
Asked if they were willing to undertake training to secure a mining job, here’s who said no:
- 84% of those looking for their first start
- 8% of those with less than two years’ experience
- 3% of those with two to five years’ experience
- 70% of those with more than five years’ experience.
It’s absolutely mind-blowing. That’s an average of more than 78% across all groups, by the way. Nearly 16% of those who had been knocked back for more than 20 jobs said they were unwilling to train in order to secure a job.
Why mining job candidates are being knocked back for work
What makes these figures even more outrageous is the list of reasons respondents gave us explaining why they’d been knocked back for jobs. We supplied a list, and respondents were invited to select all that applied. Here’s what they said.
What reasons have you been given for being knocked back?
- 18% - Not appropriately qualified for the role
- 31% - Not enough mining experience
- 26% - Were close but missed out to a better candidate on the day
- 1% - Didn’t pass the medical or police clearance
- 44% - Were given a reason we didn’t have as an option on our list.
Give your job search the competitive edge
So, what’s going on? Why, when we hear constantly in the media that there is a labour shortage in the Australian mining industry, are even really experienced people struggling to find a job?
The fact is, it’s not simply a labour shortage the industry is experiencing, it’s a skills shortage. Mining companies are looking, very specifically, for people who know how to do certain jobs and do them well. And there aren’t enough of those people around. So, inevitably, they’re also looking for people who are willing and able to train to gain the skills required.
When you tell an employer you’re not willing to train, you’re telling them you’re not a team player. That you’re not really willing go the extra mile. That you’re not interested in becoming a really useful, highly skilled, long-term employee. That you’re not someone worth investing in.
Being willing to undergo training—whether that’s going away and studying or earning a certificate under your own steam, or telling potential employers you’re willing to do whatever they need you to do in order to upskill—tells a potential employer you’ll be an employee with the kind of get-up-and-go they’re looking for.
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