review of the state of play in employment today
Julia Ross, Managing Director and Deputy Chairman

There has been a definite increase in the number of job seekers over the last few months particularly from September/October 2008. However, as there was such a severe skills shortage prior to major reverberations being felt in Australia from the global economic downturn, this has not resulted in an excessive amount of people who are available for employment. It has however meant quite a change of focus within our organisation where consultants who have worked with us for a considerable time are finding it necessary to advise people that they may not be able to find them work as quickly as previously.

Prior to the middle of last year, this was not the case and some candidates were quite demanding in their job expectations, sometimes unrealistically. The balance has quite definitely changed from a candidate market to an employer market. We are not finding this in any extreme numbers, however most branches are showing a 30% increase in candidate flow. Clients who have the optimism and ability to take advantage of this, may find good candidates who are available currently who would not normally be available. There are also significant numbers of both Australians returning home, and Europeans and other nationalities immigrating to Australasia as job prospects decrease in other countries. Candidates are choosing lifestyle over career in these challenging times. This will of course increase the normal candidate flow, however should the Australian economy be stimulated, this could be healthy for our future growth.

Seasonality has also played a part in the equation in Australia as the job market traditionally declines close to the Christmas break causing many clients to take difficult decisions or to put hiring decisions on hold until after the Christmas break. It is safe to say that there will be a further impact as candidates are reluctant to make the usual move to  travel to other countries as uncertainty prevails and they may prefer to stay in a familiar environment rather than risking being away from home without a guaranteed income.

Many organisations have responded more swiftly than I have previously observed, to the economic challenges cutting their workforces in response to any negative data, external or internal information. This has been unusually rapid and has been carried out in a different manner than in previous downturns that I have witnessed. Fewer organisations are using the services of an outplacement provider. It is hard to comment however, as a reason this may have been carried out differently may be that this downturn seemed to sweep the world faster and with a greater immediate severity than we have seen previously. The speed of communication seems to have played a part in this, causing considerable panic at times.

One might draw from this scenario that the position could quite easily reverse as the markets gain any stimulus as speed of communication could drive markets equally as quickly in the opposite direction, when recover commences.