Hundreds of tradies moving to Queensland as worker demand increases

Queensland has seen an influx of tradies moving north following the increasing demand over multiple sectors.

Last year, 661 tradespeople moved to Queensland from New South Wales alone, but there’s also been a significant exodus from Victoria.

“Other than what’s going on in the home building industry, there’s a lot of civil work going on as well so there’s demand there,” Michael Roberts from the Housing Industry Association said.

The uptick started in 2017, with 75 tradies from Victoria moving to Queensland. By 2021, that number increased to 240, while last year it reached 275. 

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The number of tradies moving to Queensland is expected to keep increasing into 2024, and then remain steady for the next decade, experts say.

“Well it’s a pretty good place to live here in Queensland, there’s a lot of work in the Queensland sector and guaranteed work over the next 10 years with the Olympics and the energy sector,” Anissa Levy, the commissioner of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission, said.

“The good news for Queenslanders is we are seeing an increase in the number of licensees both from internal and coming from other jurisdictions like from Victoria.”

Queensland sees a net increase of about 2000 licensed tradies every year.