The Mercer study reveals the 10 Australian jobs that saw the biggest pay rises last year

A new study has identified the jobs that saw the biggest pay increases last year, with project engineers, customer service representatives and market research analysts leading the way.

Data from global consultancy Mercer found that employers were forced to increase their salary offers due to the tight labor market.

This included an increase in base salaries by an average of 4 percent, one percent more than expected Australian Financial Report reported.

More than 1,200 Australian organizations and almost 425,000 employees were surveyed, with some roles receiving a larger pay rise than others.

Entry-level general project engineer positions saw the highest average salary increase at 19 percent, with experts claiming that engineers are always in demand

The top three occupations were entry-level jobs in general project engineering, senior customer relationship management and entry-level jobs in IT software development and operations, which saw increases of 19 percent, 18 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Entry-level market research and analysis ranked fourth with a 14 percent increase, while entry-level general appliance repair saw a 13 percent increase.

Next came the entry-level industrial machinery mechanic, whose salary increased by a whopping 12 percent, and in seventh place was an 11 percent increase for the entry-level civil/construction/structural engineering job.

The entry-level information system security class came in eighth place with an average increase of 11 percent.

Entry-level positions in electrical engineering also saw a salary increase of 11 percent, while salary packages for entry-level positions in IT, telecommunications and Internet as a generalist were increased by 10 percent.

Aurecon chief people officer Liam Hayes said engineers were always in demand as Australia did not produce enough of them, with an engineering role set to see the biggest pay rise in 2022-23.

“We definitely still need to look for these skills overseas because there aren’t enough of these high-demand skills in Australia,” Mr Hayes said.

Labor shortages across the engineering profession have declined slightly since the peak of the labor shortage last year, he added, with the company’s staff turnover rate now 20 percent lower than in fiscal 2022.

Mr Hayes said Aurecon had increased salaries in line with market conditions to attract and retain staff.

Senior employees in customer relationship management and entry-level employees in IT software development and IT operations came in second and third place, each with a salary increase of 18 percent

This is in line with the report’s recommendations, which suggests workplaces adopt employee retention strategies.

This included offering flexible work, learning and development programs as well as higher internal minimum wages, performance bonuses, referral bonuses, retention bonuses and more paid time off.

The report from global consulting firm Mercer recommends companies integrate employee engagement strategies into the workplace