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Queensland Infrastructure Recruitment Squeeze: Why Delayed Hiring Will Cost You Big in 2025
- Louise Pope
- Sep 4
- 2 min read
Queensland is in the middle of the biggest infrastructure and property boom in decades — and the talent pool has never been smaller. Projects are already competing head-to-head for the same senior engineers, project managers, contract administrators, and development leaders.
If you’re not moving now to secure your people, you’ll be left with the candidates no one else wants — or worse, no one at all.
Queensland Infrastructure Recruitment. The numbers don’t lie — we’re already in a hiring crisis
Vacancy times for critical roles in Queensland’s infrastructure sector have blown out by 40% in the last 18 months.
Senior PM roles are now attracting half the applications they did two years ago.
Counter-offers are up 65%, locking key people into existing projects.
This isn’t a “future risk” — it’s happening right now.
The ripple effect of waiting too long to hire
Every week you delay recruitment:
Your competitors are making offers to the same candidates you’re “still thinking about.”
Project milestones slip, costing thousands per day in holding costs.
Remaining team members take on double workloads, risking burnout and attrition.
By the time you feel the pain, it’s already too late.
Why the usual hiring tactics won’t cut it
Posting a job ad and waiting for the right CV to land is over. Passive candidates — the ones you really want — aren’t browsing job boards. They’re busy delivering someone else’s project.
In this market, you need:
Proactive headhunting into competitor projects.
Rapid shortlist turnaround to beat counter-offers.
Market intelligence to identify talent movements before they go public.
How Aequalis Consulting is staying ahead of the squeeze
We’ve been preparing for this for over a year:
Maintaining live, pre-qualified shortlists for high-demand roles.
Mapping talent across key Queensland projects, so we know who’s coming available and when.
Building relationships with interstate talent who are ready to relocate for the right project.
Recent placements have been made in under 10 days from brief to accepted offer — because our clients moved quickly and trusted our process.
The 2025 hiring playbook
If you want to win the talent race, you need to:
Brief your recruiter early — before the role is urgent.
Commit to a fast interview process — no more than 2 rounds.
Put your best offer forward first — don’t lowball in a counter-offer market.
Secure contracts quickly — hesitation costs hires.
The Queensland boom isn’t waiting for anyone — and neither is the talent. If you’re serious about delivering your projects on time and on budget, your recruitment strategy needs to move just as fast as your build schedule.
Contact Aequalis Consulting today to lock in the people who will keep your projects on
track.
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