2016 Wrap Up Christchurch

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Cobalt Recruitment

  2016 has been a memorable year in many ways and a particularly exciting year for the Christchurch Construction & Engineering community. Some milestones include SCIRT completing 96% of their programme and several new buildings opening in the CBD such as the PwC Building, BNZ Centre, ANZ Centre, the Innovation Precinct and several shops in the Retail Precinct. It’s refreshing to see so many businesses returning to the CBD. It’s also a good reminder how lucky we are to be enjoying front row seats in a complete rebuild of a modern city.

As we reflect back on the year, I wanted to take the opportunity to provide some insight into the local job market and where things are headed for 2017.

I’m sure most of you have seen the devastating images that have come out of Kaikoura as a result of the M7.8 earthquake. The change in physical landscape and scale of some of these images are a humbling reminder of how powerful the seismic activity here in New Zealand can be. So what does this mean in terms of employment? An increased demand for skilled professionals in Construction and Engineering! 

At first, there will likely be a spike in the demand for Geologists and Geotechnical Engineers to assess the new ground conditions and in particular the massive slips along SH1. Then, Engineers and Construction teams will be needed to help design and rebuild the infrastructure along the Coast. This is a vital artery for logistics and tourism in and out of the South Island. Simultaneously, Structural Engineers will be performing vast amounts of assessments on damaged buildings, providing strengthening and/or rebuild options for these structures. Another interesting trend that we’ve observed this year is the growth in opportunities in the Construction and Engineering industries in both Queenstown and Dunedin. These industries are struggling to build the infrastructure and required housing fast enough in order to keep up with growing demand in the Southern Lakes Region. In fact Queenstown is the only region outside of Auckland to have an average price tag of $1million attached to the residential property market which is quite staggering.

Overall, the market is doing well and while the Rebuild has relatively slowed since this time last year, there is still plenty of work to be done. In a candidate-driven market like this, it’s important to choose the recruitment consultant you partner with wisely when looking for a new opportunity. In the Cobalt Recruitment Christchurch office, we have dedicated Construction and Engineering consultants on the ground ready to meet with you and discuss what your next career move looks like.

Keep in touch, have a fantastic holiday season and remember if you are actively searching the South Island market or are just interested in hearing what is happening, our Christchurch based team at Cobalt are happy to speak to you confidentially. You can contact us on +64 (03) 366 89724.

If you are interested in discussing any construction or engineering opportunities in Christchurch, get in touch with one of the consultants in our Christchurch office

Article written by Jamie Todd & Chandler Morehardt – Construction and Engineering consultant.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 13th 2016 and is filed under Construction & Engineering. You can subscribe to our RSS 2.0 news feed here.

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