While some professions have seen a jump in salaries and others have fallen, a growing number of job-seekers have unrealistically high expectations, study finds.
Australia's increasing salary expectations and high living standards are dividing employers and young workers, a report from SEEK has revealed.
The SEEK Salary Review compared the salary information of all jobs posted on SEEK from 2012 and 2013, finding 63% of Australian industries offered job seekers higher salaries in 2013 than 2012.
The increases were more prevalent in NSW, with 63% of industries offering higher salaries, followed by VIC (60%), WA (58%), QLD (53%) and SA (52%).
Despite these increases, a drop in salaries for candidates in mining and construction has resulted in a national decrease in the average salary from $84,458 to $81,055.
"Construction and engineering jobseekers would have been disappointed to find salary decreases of up to 21% for some roles," Rebecca Supierz, HR manager at SEEK, explained. "However, these roles are coming off a high salary base and when we look nationally, the best paying jobs were still found in the mining resources and engineering sectors."
Salary expectations have also increased, with 46% of the 1000 Australians surveyed indicating that young workers have 'unrealistically high' expectations regarding their standard of living and thereby their salaries. In response, 43% of youngere employees stated the high cost of living in Australia demands these wages.
Key findings
Top five roles for year-on-year salary growth nationwide:
- Local government members: $57,672 to $69,381 (20%)
- Biotechnologists: $71,063 to $84,033 (18%)
- Volunteer coordinators: $53,308 to $61,813 (16%)
- Federal government workers: $98,890 to $112,386 (14%)
- Oil and gas geoscientists: $140,499 to $158,671 (13%)
Top five roles for year-on-year salary decline nationwide:
- Construction planners: $120,467 to $95,052 (21%)
- Material handlers: $125,130 to $105,503 (16%)
- Environmental services assistants: $70,538 to $61,718 (13%)
- Engineering draftspeople: $85,355 to $78,201 (11%)
- Construction estimators: $110,410 to $98,288 (11%)
What do you think of young worker's salary expectations? Are they unreasonably high, or suitable due to our economic climate?
