THE FIFO cash cow is drying up, with workers willing to take a massive 27 per cent pay cut for a job in mining.

As the number of people looking for work in the state rises, West Australians can no longer demand exorbitant boom-time wages.

New figures reveal that geologists are now willing to work for $52 an hour a substantial drop from the $71 an hour they were chasing a year ago.

Across a year, their annual salary falls from $140,000 to $103,000.

People looking for jobs in health, safety and environment have also dropped their asking prices significantly.

A year ago they were demanding $72 an hour. Now they believe they are worth $52 an hour.

Engineers have also dropped their asking price from $80.40 an hour to $70.70.

On average, the WA job seeker is now looking for $51.6 an hour down from $59.8 an hour this time last year.

Recruitment site FIFOBids director Mike Haywood said the live data gave a real insight into the WA economy in transition.

"People know when their jobs are on the line," he said.

"So they put themselves in the market, and they can see what other people are asking for, and they want to be the first in line to get a job, so they lower their asking rate."

He said the figures relating to engineers showed the impact of the plummeting iron ore price in September that resulted in companies such as Fortescue Metals Group putting off hundreds of workers.

But he said it wasn't all "doom and gloom", just a "transition of industry".

"We're seeing electrical and mechanical trades becoming more expensive and there is more demand for them now, and that reflects that there is probably a lot of construction going on, which tends to lead into operational roles down the track."

West Australians account for 21.2 per cent of the website's live job market with 11,159 workers looking for a new role.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA economic and policy manager Dana Hyland said the figures were consistent with the wage-rise index that showed wages were increasing much more slowly than before.

She stressed the WA economy was still "very strong" with jobs still being created, despite the unemployment rate rising from 3.8 per cent in May last year to 4.9 per cent his year.

Ms Hyland said the softening of the labour market was good news for small businesses that had struggled to compete with the inflated salaries offered by the mining sector.

Bankwest chief economist Alan Langford agreed that sliding wages, coupled with a lower Australian dollar, was good news for businesses with many blaming both for the high cost of doing business in WA.

The labour market was "always going to come off the boil" and was evidence of the market working properly, he said.

ManpowerGroup Australia and New Zealand managing director Lincoln Crawley said many of the high-paying jobs, especially fly-in, fly-out roles, were coming back to more "traditional levels" of pay.

"What makes Australia uncompetitive is unrealistic or artificially raised wage rates," he said.

Mr Crawley said companies were learning to operate in an "environment of certain uncertainty", offering more part-time or contract work.

The number of employed people in WA has risen by 15,200 in the past 12 months, with the state's growing population partly to blame.

But the number of jobs created is down from 60,100 between May 2011 and May 2012, and 47,800 between May 2010 and May 2011.