Boom In Building No Boon To Youth

15 December 2003

A CHRONIC shortage of tradesmen in the Hunter has left demand for carpenters, plasterers and tilers so high that home owners are waiting as long as six months just for job quotations.

The building boom, particularly in the inner-city apartment market, has fuelled the shortage but first-year apprentices are struggling to find host employers.

Newcastle Master Builders Association chief executive Robert Fuller said the demand was a boon for experienced builders but it was not easing the high youth unemployment in the region.

The finishing trades, including plasterers, plumbers and floor sanders, were the most sought after, Mr Fuller said.

``At the moment, you can't get a carpenter for love nor money," he said.

Builders were under such pressure to complete the backlog of work that they were reluctant to employ untrained first-year apprentices.

Mr Fuller said he had many keen young people on his books desperate for an apprenticeship but while apprentice wages had increased over the past decade, government subsidies to employers had not.

``The real dollar terms for subsidies have not moved in 10 years," he said.

``The value of putting on an apprentice has been significantly eroded and ... the baby boomers will be retiring soon but there will be no young people coming through."

Association of Wall and Ceiling Industry Northumberland branch president John Gorton said the Hunter Institute of TAFE would offer a plastering course next year for first-year apprentices.

Mr Gorton said the course would help relieve the declining number of plastering apprentices, because employers previously had to send the young tradesmen to Lidcombe for training.

Newcastle Trades Hall Council secretary Gary Kennedy said there was close to nil unemployment in the building industry in the Hunter but older trades in the metal and manufacturing sectors were experiencing high levels of joblessness.


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