Demand for planners in Melbourne and Sydney is “red hot” with many consultancies finding it difficult to fill positions. John Wynne, Managing Partner at Urbis, said it’s an incredibly busy time for planners and so recruiting them is a challenge.
“It’s fair to say that nationally the demand for planners is as high as it’s ever been and that’s across all levels of government, planning agencies, non-planning agencies that require planners working in them; it’s also in the consulting business,” he said.
“There’s been a real massive increase in demand for planners all across Australia – Victoria and NSW probably most notably.”
Planning Institute of Australia runs an online employment directory and fortnightly bulletin featuring planning jobs around the nation. Chief Executive Officer David Williams, who took the reins at the PIA in December, said Melbourne and Sydney accounted for 80 per cent of the job opportunities in Australia.
In the most recent PIA bulletin there were 67 jobs advertised – 28 in Melbourne and 20 in Sydney. At Christmas time there were 58 jobs – 40 in Melbourne and 13 in Sydney.
“Overall the job number vacancies are running at almost an all-time high,” Williams said. “Melbourne – it’s really red hot for the planners – and I assume from that there must be some difficulty getting the right people in the right jobs.
“Sydney is strong, Queensland is OK and all other capitals are flat to negative.
“It’s clearly very patchy with activity focused on those two cities but the other cities are so quiet. We’re seeing a little bit of migration, more younger planners – those that are more mobile – coming out of Adelaide and heading to Melbourne.”