Labour efficiency
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WESTERN Australia’s construction industry labour force is the most efficient in the nation, new statistics have revealed.
Research by international property and construction consultants, Davis Langdon, showed an improvement in construction industry labour productivity through 2009 and 2010 across all states, with the exception of Queensland
The research was based on an analysis of the number of jobs compared to each dollar of construction work done nationally.
Davis Langdon senior economist and national research and development manager, Andrew Wilson, said the statistics revealed a significant improvement in construction sector productivity over the past two years.
“What we have found is that the Australian construction workforce utilised an average of 6.3 jobs for each million dollars of work done for the year ending March 2010, compared to 6.8 jobs per million dollars for the same period in 2009,” Dr Wilson said.
“All states, with the exception of Queensland, reported construction industry labour productivity improvement over this period.”
According to Dr Wilson, Western Australia “clearly” has the most efficient construction workforce, requiring only 3.5 jobs to complete $1 million in construction work.
The research showed New South Wales was the least efficient state for labour productivity, requiring 8.3 jobs for every million dollars of work completed.
In terms of building industry construction, excluding engineering works, Dr Wilson said Victoria’s workforce was the most efficient, followed by Western Australia.
“Western Australia, with the highest proportion of engineering construction (70 per cent) to total construction was still just behind Victoria in terms of labour productivity efficiency requiring 11.6 jobs for every $1 million in building work,” Dr Wilson said.
Dr Wilson said continued productivity growth could be constrained, however, as accelerating construction activity levels across Australian markets through 2010 and into 2011 places pressure on industry efficiency.