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Before blaming the market: Melbourne electricians sit at $85,000-$100,000 against a national band of $95,000-$115,000 and Brisbane at $100,000-$120,000 (SEEK, 1 September 2026).
You are hiring in the cheapest capital-city electrical market in the country. If nothing is coming in, the ad is a more likely culprit than the shortage.
Five things that are usually wrong, in the order they cost you the most.
The single most common failure and the easiest to fix.
An experienced electrician scrolling job ads will skip an ad with no number. Not because they are mercenary, but because they have been burned by ads that turned out to be $15,000 under market after two rounds of interviews.
A range is fine. Silence is not. And in a market where you are already competitively priced by national standards, hiding the number gains you nothing.
"Licensed electrician" attracts everyone from A Grade holders to Restricted Electrical Worker's licence holders to supervised workers.
Victoria has eleven electrical licence and registration categories. A Grade is what most commercial and industrial roles need. REL is a limited scope attached to another trade. If you do not name it, you sort the applications instead of the job board doing it.
Naming the class reduces volume and increases relevance. That is the trade you want.
In trades hiring, a service vehicle that goes home is one of the strongest levers available, and a surprising number of ads never mention whether there is one.
If you provide one, say so, and say it goes home if it does. If you do not, expect to make that up elsewhere.
"Some after-hours work may be required" reads to an experienced tradesperson as "unpaid, unpredictable, and more than you think".
Be specific. A rostered on-call one week in four, paid at a stated rate, is a fair deal that people accept. An undefined obligation is a reason to skip the ad.
The composite-candidate problem. A-grade licensed, ten years commercial and industrial, switchboard building, BMS controls exposure, high voltage ticket, own tools, immediate start - at $88,000.
Picture that ad running for six weeks with three applications, none suitable. The conclusion drawn is "there's a shortage". The actual finding is that the brief describes four people and pays for one.
The test: count the mandatory requirements. If there are more than five, one of them is costing you your shortlist and it is probably not the one you would guess.
Across Australia, only 1% of employers adjusted remuneration in 2023 in response to skills shortages (Jobs and Skills Australia). If your ad has been running for six weeks at a number set in 2023, the market has moved and you have not.
In Melbourne that is a fixable problem, because you are starting from the cheapest capital-city base in the country.
HJ Recruitment places permanent electrical, plumbing, HVAC and refrigeration, fire and solar tradespeople with Australian employers. If your role has been open too long, we will tell you whether it is the market or the brief.
Sources- SEEK - Electrician salary, Melbourne- Energy Safe Victoria - Electrical licence types- Jobs and Skills Australia - Current skills shortages
