There are signs of green shoots in WA's economy with some recruitment agencies and job-search websites reporting an uptick in the number of mining jobs on the market.

WA's mining sector shed more than 25,000 jobs between August 2013 and June this year as commodity prices plunged and projects shifted from the construction to production phase.

But there are signs of a possible turnaround for the sector with commodity prices picking up and job ads on the rise.

WA state director of Hays recruitment firm, Chris Kent, said the rise in job advertisements had prompted his company to take on more staff.

"We've doubled the number of consultants, we've doubled in revenue, we're growing sustainably as a result of the increase in jobs," he said.

"We would be mobilising in excess of 30 to 40 people a week at the moment in our mining trade sector."

Chris Kent says Hays has taken on more staff to deal with the rising job numbers. ( ABC News: Manny Tesconi )

One of Australia's largest online recruitment platforms SEEK had also reported a turnaround in the number of mining and resource jobs it is advertising.

Over the past three months, the number of jobs in the sector it advertised in WA was up 4 per cent on the same period last year.

Nationally job ads for the industry were up 11 per cent.

In WA the best-performing mining sector between August and October was exploration and geoscience, which was up 60 per cent, while mine processing came in second with 46 per cent growth, and drill and blast work grew by 33 per cent.

Gold, iron ore and nickel prices improve

Mr Kent said the uptick was being driven by growth in three key areas.

"Gold's been strong for a while but certainly iron ore and more recently nickel have certainly improved," he said.

"The nickel price is something that's interesting, it's probably at the bottom of the curve and as a result people have been reluctant to invest until they saw the upswing, but with mines closing in the Philippines the supply, demand equation is changing."

The growth followed a big increase in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) companies had taken to the market to raise cash for exploration.

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Simon Bennison said the number of IPOs being undertaken was a key indicator of how the sector was going.

"There's been a serious increase in the number of IPOs this year," he said.

"We had two or three last year, we've had about half a dozen this year and there are about 12 or 13 sitting at the front door of the ASX right now waiting to be funded," Mr Bennison said.

Mr Bennison said the extra cash had translated into digging for new deposits.

"I think it's a combination of the two, an upturn in commodity prices, the fact there are some really good deals out there to be made with drilling companies," he said.

"We have seen through the ABS stats an increase in particular in the gold sector, in the metres drilled and the expenditure.

"Our colleagues out at the drilling industry association in Kalgoorlie have certainly see an increase in the number of rigs mobilised and companies keen to increase greenfields exploration.

While the mining sector appears to have taken a leap forward, employment in the oil and gas sector continued to fall.