Sites are busy, sales are cooling and the cash rate is at an 18 year high. JV Recruitment’s Bex Clark says that combination is changing who Queensland builders hire, and how.
Every builder hiring right now is making a bet on 2027.
Bring on a senior estimator or contract administrator today and the business carries that salary into a year when the Reserve Bank expects home building to go backwards. Hold off, and the same person may not be available when work picks up again.
Bex Clark, Senior Consultant at JV Recruitment and a member of our Directory, places construction staff with builders and developers across Queensland. She says that tension is now playing out behind the scenes, even while sites look as busy as ever.
“Beneath that bustling surface, a very different story is playing out in sales offices and boardrooms across the state,” she says.
Builders are hesitant to lock in permanent senior staff
Clark says many builders are reluctant to commit to permanent mid level and senior technical staff for projects that might be delayed or shelved.
At the same time, they know what happens when the cycle turns. “Once the market turns, experienced talent will be impossible to secure,” she says.
The result, in her experience, is recruitment forced into a reactive cycle. Hiring decisions follow each shift in sales and interest rates rather than a longer workforce plan.
Busy sites today reflect sales made months ago
The hesitation makes more sense once the lag in home building is factored in.
ABS Building Activity data shows 52,567 dwellings under construction in Queensland at the end of June 2026, the highest figure in a series that begins in 1984. Two years earlier it was 38,767. We reported on that record Queensland building pipeline in October.
Much of that work was sold well before the current run of rate rises.
“A drop in buyer confidence or a freeze in finance approvals doesn’t instantly empty a construction site the next day; it takes months for the pipeline to drain,” Clark says.
She says almost every builder and developer she speaks with across South East Queensland reports a noticeable downturn in new sales, with fewer fresh projects entering the preconstruction queue. “The current wave of work keeping sites busy will largely wash through by the middle of 2027.”
The Reserve Bank’s numbers point the same way
On 3 November the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.85 per cent, the fifth rise of 2026 and its highest level since 2008.
Its November Statement on Monetary Policy says new housing loan commitments are 27 per cent below their November 2025 peak. Builders in the Bank’s liaison program describe solid activity carrying into early 2027, but weaker sales, buyers taking a wait and see approach and some increase in contract cancellations.
The Bank forecasts dwelling investment to grow just 1.3 per cent over the year to June 2027, then fall 2.8 per cent over 2027 and 3.5 per cent over the year to June 2028. We unpacked those RBA forecasts for home building on the day of the decision.
That is the window Clark is describing. The staff a builder hires now will be on the books through it.
Experienced construction staff are still in demand
A softer sales outlook has not made people easy to find.
The ABS estimates there were 20,000 job vacancies in construction in August 2026, broadly unchanged from a year earlier, according to its Job Vacancies release.
The Reserve Bank’s business contacts report that recruiting and retaining staff is generally easier than a couple of years ago, but that competition for labour remains strong in construction trades. Firms report wages growth lifting to around 3.75 per cent over the September quarter and do not expect it to slow materially over the year ahead.
For a builder weighing a senior hire, that combination matters. Work may thin out in 2027, but the people who can run it well are not becoming cheaper or more plentiful.
“Once the market turns, experienced talent will be impossible to secure.”
Demand is shifting toward preconstruction roles
Clark says the builders handling this well are not cutting back or freezing hiring outright. They are changing how they resource.
“Instead of bloated corporate structures, builders are leaning towards agility,” she says.
In her experience, the roles builders are prioritising are senior operational and technical positions: estimators who can work across several functions, contract administrators, and detail focused senior drafting staff.
These are the people responsible for making sure the projects that do proceed reach site efficient, fully compliant and, in Clark’s words, “engineered to eliminate costly variations before a slab is poured.”
The reasoning ties back to margin. Clark expects competition for new work to intensify as backlogs shrink, with builders bidding harder for fewer jobs on margins that are already tight. When work is plentiful, an error in a quote or a set of drawings gets absorbed. When jobs are scarce, the cost of a variation lands harder.
Why preconstruction roles matter more in a slowdown
Estimators, contract administrators and drafting staff shape a project before the first trade arrives on site. Their work sets the price, the scope and the documentation that variations are measured against. When fewer jobs are available and margins are tighter, mistakes made at this stage cost more to recover, which is why demand for experienced preconstruction staff can hold up even as overall hiring slows.
2027 is shaping up as a test of workforce planning
Clark’s view is that the builders who come through the 2027 dip will not be the ones who react hardest when the pipeline drops.
They will be the ones who use the quieter stretch to sharpen preconstruction accuracy, protect margin, and “keep key talent close so they are ready to move the second buyer confidence returns.”
Queensland sites are busy today because of decisions buyers made months ago. The hiring decisions builders make now will shape what their businesses look like when the next upswing arrives.
The Good Builder Take
Record sites and slowing sales can both be true at once. The harder question is what happens to capability inside a business when hiring stops and starts with every rate decision.
Experienced estimators and contract administrators take years to develop. Clark’s point is that losing them in a soft patch is a cost that tends to show up in the next upswing, when every builder is chasing the same people.
Bex Clark is a Senior Consultant at JV Recruitment, which provides permanent, contract and labour hire staff across the construction industry. Find JV Recruitment in our Directory, and listen to The Good Builder Podcast for more on what builders are seeing on the ground.
Frequently asked questions
JV Recruitment Senior Consultant Bex Clark says builders are prioritising senior operational and technical roles, including estimators who work across several functions, contract administrators and detail focused senior drafting staff. These roles shape price, scope and documentation before a project reaches site.
Sales of new homes are slowing after five rate rises in 2026, and the Reserve Bank forecasts dwelling investment to fall through 2027 and into 2028. Clark says builders are reluctant to commit to permanent senior staff for projects that may be delayed or shelved, while knowing experienced people will be hard to secure when the market turns.
The ABS estimates there were 20,000 construction job vacancies in August 2026, broadly unchanged from a year earlier. Reserve Bank business contacts say recruiting is generally easier than a couple of years ago, but competition for labour remains strong in construction trades.
ABS Building Activity data shows 52,567 dwellings under construction in Queensland at the end of June 2026, the highest figure in a series that begins in 1984.
In its November 2026 Statement on Monetary Policy, the Reserve Bank forecasts dwelling investment to grow 1.3 per cent over the year to June 2027, then fall 2.8 per cent over 2027 and 3.5 per cent over the year to June 2028.
Related articles
- RBA Lifts Rates to 4.85 and Forecasts Home Building to Shrink Through 2027 and 2028
- Queensland’s Building Pipeline Hits a Fourth Straight Record
- House Approvals Slip in Every State as the 2026 Trend Loses Pace
Last updated 12 November 2026. Data: ABS Building Activity, Australia, June 2026 (original terms); ABS Job Vacancies, Australia, August 2026 (original terms); RBA Statement on Monetary Policy, November 2026.
General information only. This article is general information and does not take into account your particular circumstances. It is not financial, legal or employment advice. Consider obtaining professional advice before making decisions based on this information.
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