Infrastructure Australia’s 2025 market report puts the five year public infrastructure pipeline at $242 billion, up 14 per cent year on year. Transport is $129 billion of it, buildings $77 billion and utilities $36 billion. The buildings number is the one that moved, up $6 billion on social and affordable housing and health projects. Utilities rose $20 billion, almost all of it transmission for the energy transition.
The regions doing the growing
Ten regions are forecast to see public investment more than double by 2028 to 29. In New South Wales they are New England, the Far West, the Murray, the Hunter Valley and the Riverina. In Queensland they are the Sunshine Coast, Wide Bay, Mackay Isaac Whitsunday and Toowoomba. Tasmania’s south east rounds out the list.
The workforce number
The current infrastructure workforce is around 204,000 and the projected peak shortage is 300,000 workers by mid 2027, with regional shortages expected to quadruple between 2025 and 2027.
Why a labour shortage is good news for a subcontractor
When the tier ones are 300,000 people short, they cannot self perform. Every project becomes a set of packages, let earlier, and every package needs a subcontractor the estimator trusts to turn up. The estimator building that list is doing it under pressure, from the last three jobs and whoever has made themselves known since. A shortage of people inside the head contractor is a surplus of opportunity outside it.
How regional pipelines are actually let
Regional projects are let to whoever is nearby and known, because mobilising a metro subcontractor into New England or the Riverina is expensive and slow. A regional head contractor keeps a short list of local trades and prices with them every time. Those lists are usually settled before the project starts. The ten regions forecast to double are the ten places where a local subcontractor with a good reputation and no sales function is leaving the most on the table.
What this means for subcontractors
The pipeline and the awards are public. Head contractors are hiring estimators and contracts staff to keep up, a sign of how much work is being packaged at once. Subcontract packages are typically let in the six to twelve weeks after a head contract is awarded, and with the workforce short, capable subcontractors are in demand across the regions where the pipeline is growing fastest.
Sources
- 2025 Infrastructure Market Capacity Report, Infrastructure Australia
- Australia and New Zealand Infrastructure Pipeline
Figures are taken from the sources above at the time of writing. Check them before quoting them in a pitch.
