The party is over for jobseekers in the mining industry, and that doesn't bode well for the wider jobs market or the government's employment growth promise.
The Department of Employment's latest update on mining sector jobs forecasts a fall in employment of 4.5 per cent over the five years to November 2018, reducing employment by about 12,300.
This compares with expected growth of 7.2 per cent, or about 830,000 jobs, for employment as a whole.
Although long range economic projections always come with a big dose of uncertainty, the report casts doubt on the government's pre-election promise to create a million jobs in five years, and two million in 10 years.
If employment continued to grow at the projected growth rate - 1.4 per cent a year - it would be 300,000 short of the two million target after a decade.
In the mining sector, employment rose by 167,000 jobs to 268,000 in the 10 years to May this year, according to trend figures from the bureau of statistics.
That is an average growth rate of over 10 per cent per year, even including the last two years of when employment growth hit the wall.
The Department of Employment said mining jobs growth has stalled, growing by only 4,000, or 1.5 per cent, over the 12 months to May 2014, as mineral prices have fallen, construction activity has plateaued and operating costs are being intensely scrutinised.
"Weaker confidence and the deferral of a number of major resource projects have also been caused by slower growth in demand from China and lower commodity prices," it said.
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