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Creation Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 GMT

More jobs, pay boom tipped

PAY packets for property and construction workers and executives could start edging towards the heady heights of the 2007 boom this year as Lend Lease prepares to start hiring up to 3000 workers for the $6 billion Barangaroo redevelopment on Sydney's harbour before Christmas.
The employment market for the property and construction industries suffered in the downturn, with thousands of redundancies made, but it appears to have staged a comeback in the past six weeks.

According to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of construction jobs on offer increased in every state except Queensland for the February quarter.

The strongest uplift was in Victoria, where there were 8.4 per cent more jobs on offer compared to the November quarter. This comes on the back of a lift in residential construction demand in Melbourne in the last year.

Queensland's construction job market suffered from increased taxes and charges on development projects imposed by the state government and councils, according to the property development industry group, the Urban Development Institute of Australia.

The national secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union's construction division, Dave Noonan, said in some areas -- those where there were big resource projects -- there was demand for labour, but in other parts of the country, such as Sydney, activity was still quiet. "It is probably a two-speed economy."

Mr Noonan added that there had not been a dramatic change in the rate of remuneration since the global economic downturn.

Bridget Carter, The Australian, April 06 2010