A SURVEY of 429 engineering employers has revealed that the recruitment and retention of qualified engineers continues to be a major challenge, resulting in delays and budget overruns in 28 per cent of major projects.

The findings were reported in the Engineers Australia Salary and Benefits Survey which highlights the effects of Australia’s engineering skills shortage.

Engineers Australia chief executive officer Stephen Durkin said the survey results clearly show that engineering employers are struggling to find suitably skilled people to fill vacancies, and are increasingly having to   offer higher salaries and salary packages to attract and retain appropriately skilled engineers.

“The survey is a barometer for understanding engineering recruitment confidence levels and remuneration in both public and private sectors. What we’re now seeing is an overall increase in engineering salaries and salary packages flowing from the engineering skills shortage. Professional engineers, across both the public and private sectors, saw an average base salary increase of 9 per cent in 2011,” Mr Durkin said.

“The engineering labour force sits at about 250,000 people. Within this context, almost two-thirds of employers had difficulties hiring engineers over the past twelve months, and almost one-third of employers could not fill vacancies at all. Shortages were evident across all engineering specialisations, but civil engineering continued to pose the most recruiting difficulties for employers.”

The report showed that along with 28 per cent of major projects experiencing delays and increased costs, six per cent of engineering projects did not proceed at all.

The complete survey is available for purchase from the Engineers Australia website.