HOBAN Recruitment’s National Sales Manager Andrew Green reviews the state of the labour market for October.
- The unemployment rate increased to a six-month high to 5.2%
- Thousands re-enter the labour market looking for work as lockdowns ease
- Victoria had almost 50,000 job losses in September
October was the
month for records, good and bad. Whether it’s Melbourne ending a world-leading
number of days in lockdown, or it being the record-shattering number of job
vacancies posted on SEEK in its 23+ year history. A lot was going on.
Unemployment
increased to the highest level over the last six months, with more people
looking for work as restrictions and lockdowns ease across the nation.
With some great
news for employers – there are now more people looking for work.
The national participation
rate increased last month by 0.1 points with thousands of people re-entering
the market looking for work. In a market where some employers are having to result
to hiring robots in lieu of people, it’s welcome news for labour-hungry
industries.
Record jabs, record lockdowns & record jobs
As the Victorian
premier promised, when the education state reached a rate of 70% fully
inoculated for the eligible population on Friday 22nd October, more
than five million Melbournians celebrated freedom after facing a combined 260
days of lockdown since the start of the pandemic.
Do you know what
people want to do when they’re out of lockdown? Shop, drink, eat and just have
fun – and that’s what they did.
This demand in both
newly opened Victoria and New South Wales drove the number of job vacancies
last month, particularly in hospitality & tourism, sports & recreation
and customer service industries. This helped fuel the largest number of job
vacancies posted on the SEEK platform in over 23 years.
SEEK continues to
report record low rates of applications per job posting.
Despite the growth
in job postings for Victoria, the state also was the bulk of job losses for
September due to being in lockdown for three weeks of the month, with almost
50,000 people dropping from employment. How has this impacted the unemployment
rate?
The above table
from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that while the rate of unemployed
people had increased compared to last month, its rate of 5.2% is still lower
than compared to its average rate of 6.25% since monthly reporting started in
1978.
Let’s have a look
at the labour force in detail below:
Labour Force Snapshot – October 2021
Unemployment rate
Increased to
5.2%
Employment
Decreased to
12,835,200
Participation rate
Increased to
64.7%
Monthly hours worked
Decreased by
1,000,000
Underemployment rate
Increased to
9.5%
Employment to population ratio
Decreased to
61.3%
Data obtained from ABS ‘Labour Force, Australia October 2021’ Released 11th November 2021
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia/latest-release
Has the Great Resignation made its way to Australia?
Record available
jobs, record low application rates plus lockdown-fatigued workers. Could this
be a trend for the localised ‘Big Quit’?
But what is the
Great Resignation? Back in March this year, Microsoft released results from their
research into workplace trends and found that up to 40% of the global workforce
are ready to resign.
We’ve heard for
months now about the record levels of people resigning from work across the
pacific in the United States. For the fourth month in a row, a record level of Americans have handed in
their resignation and called it quits in the millions.
It’s possible that
the Great Resignation might have made its way Downunder. Within the latest
state of the nation, SEEK has released that up to 28% of Australian’s are likely to consider
changing their jobs within
the next six months.
Next month we’re
predicting to see employment numbers rebound strongly off the back of the
removal of most restrictions across Victoria and New South Wales. We believe
this will continue up to and after when employers finally get access to
international talent pools.
Finding it hard to find or keep staff? How HOBAN can help
We know that it can
be hard for employers to find the right talent in this current market.
If you find yourself in need of
any advice regarding the attraction of new candidates or need to take the next
step with a staffing solution
to grow your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on the below contact
details.
You’ll need the support of an agency that understands the local market as well as we do. With over 50 years of local, proven experience, HOBAN Recruitment is qualified to provide custom, scalable staffing solutions that are right for your business.
Andrew Green
National Sales
Manager
andrewg@hoban.com.au | 0434 306 138
