Available job postings in Australia grew to 187,100, up 3.3 percent in the three months to August, hitting employment opportunities are slowly recovering after months of slowdown.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released today showed vacancies for the three months to August increased 2.9 percent compared year-on-year. Job vacancies in the private sector rose an adjusted 4.1 percent in the August quarter to 170,000, 3.8 percent bigger than August 2010.

On a quarterly basis, the number of job vacancies in the private sector was 170,000 in August, 4.1 percent jump from 163,300 in May this year. There were also 17,100 vacancies in the public sector in August, a 4.4 percent fall from vacancies recorded three months previously.

Meanwhile, mining giant BHP Billiton forecast at least 170,000 jobs will be made available in Australia's mining industry in the next five years. BHP said least 90,000 jobs will be created in the industry by 2016, while demand for temporary construction workers will peak at 80,000 in 2014.

Majority of the jobs growth predicted by BHP is targeted for Western Australia and Queensland, where companies are rapidly advancing explorations in coal, iron ore and liquefied natural gas.

BHP is confident the continued global demand for iron ore will spur an output of 450 million tonnes a year, thus creating thousands of openings for potential workers.