The outlook for the Australian trades job market is sunny with the sector set for 8.4% growth over the next three years, according to the 2014 Adecco Employment and Talent Report.

While the industry only experienced 2.7% growth over the past three years, permanent positions are set to grow by 8.7% and temporary positions to 7.4% by 2016.

With current job vacancies of 20,000, areas such as construction, engineering and science based roles are seeing a sharp increase in demand. Only agricultural candidates are experiencing a soft market.

Overall wages in this sector have improved by 4.3% in 2013 with permanent roles attracting on average a 4.5% increase and temporary or casual roles attracting 3.6% increase in 2013.

The 2014 Adecco Employment and Talent Report details current salary ranges across all job titles in the trades sector.

Speaking at the launch of the report Adecco Australia & New Zealand chief operating officer Mike Davies said, “Local business and consumer confidence combined with a more stable world economy and low interest rates will lead to an increase for labour in 2014 across many industry sectors and this will be matched with moderate wage growth.

“The pressures of skills shortages in many sectors have softened and this has passed the control back to the employer with the majority of wage increases set to match CPI increases rather than in a desperate bidding war for talent”.

The Report publishes market expectations and salary levels for the following industry sectors: Office support, contact centre, banking & financial services, accounting & finance, sales & marketing, government, manufacturing & operations, transport & logistics, trades, engineering & technical, mining & resources, and energy & utilities.