After 3.5 Years, Australia's Hiring Intentions Are Rising

16 Jan 2014

Immigration News

As organizations mold their businesses to meet the market, the hiring intentions are increasing, shows Hudson Report.

The Hudson Report of this quarter: Employment Trends, reveals a growth in hiring intentions among organizations in Australia with 23.4% planning to hire more staff in the coming quarter, a rise of 2.5% points (pp). Since the 3^rd Quarter of 2010, this is the first improvement in hiring intentions in Australia.

Employers expecting to maintain present headcount prevailed at 65.4% while intentions to reduce headcount decreased 2.6pp to 11.2%.

The EGM of Hudson Recruitment Australia, Dean Davidson said that employers are cautiously optimistic, which is seen in the rising employment expectations. However, Australian organizations are maintaining their focus on re-skilling their workforces and business transformation to run effectively in the present strict economic environment, and this is boosting the demand for talent.

Some critical state-specific industry fluctuations were disclosed after taking a look at the individual states and territories of Australia. The Key findings included:

South Australia

For the 2^nd consecutive quarter, South Australia has the highest hiring intentions in Australia, increased 1.5pp to 25.7%
The Government sector’s intentions to hire increased 10.3pp to 19.4%

Queensland

The most significant growth in hiring expectations in Australia is seen in Queensland which increased 7.3pp to 25.5%
In the first Quarter 2014, half (50%) of the Professional Services industry plan to hire
Positive hiring intentions in Australia’s Property/Engineering/Construction industry raised 20.1pp to 32.8%
Positive hiring intentions in Australia’s Mining and Resources raised 7.9pp to 31.0%

Western Australia

Western Australia’s positive hiring intentions raised slightly, up 0.6pp to 23.9%
The Insurance/Financial Services industry saw a raise of 12.8pp in Western Australia’s hiring intentions, to 38.9%
The Mining and Resources sector also saw increased hiring intentions, up 6.6pp to 15.7%
Engineering/Property/Construction saw a raise of 14.6pp in the number of employers planning to maintain headcount numbers, to 66.7%

New South Wales

As a whole NSW has remained steady, with hiring intentions of NSW down 0.3pp to 22.9% while intentions to maintain headcount increased 2.1pp to 67.8%
Large fluctuations are seen in many NSW industries’ hiring intentions, particularly Insurance/Financial Services where hiring expectations improved 10.2pp to 27.3%
In Q1 2014, Information Technology has the largest proportion of employers planning to raise headcount, up 7.1pp to 37.3%
Followed by Professional Services sector at 31.1%, up 8.0pp
Expectations to maintain headcount levels in Manufacturing and Government increased 10.2pp to 76.9% and 16.2pp to 64.3% respectively

Australian Capital Territory

The largest growth in intentions to reduce headcount is seen in ACT, up 6.7pp to 20.7%, which is the highest of all territories and states
Hiring expectations for the Government dropped 5.1pp to 11.7%

Victoria

Though positive hiring intentions of Victoria have increased by 5.5pp to 21.7%, it has the lowest expectations to raise headcount
Intentions to hire in Government increased 13.0pp to 23.9%
Intentions to reduce headcounts in Manufacturing dropped drastically, down 24.1pp to 37.0%

Of all the industries, Professional Services have the highest positive hiring intention in Australia, which has increased 6.6pp to 37.7%, followed by IT, down 0.4pp to 35.6%.

Davidson said that it is reassuring to see progress in the overall hiring outlook, and particularly for Queensland and Victoria, which have seen the highest improvements.

He added that technology innovation is the key to business conversion, so it is no surprise that IT is a profession that regularly tops the results tables. Business architects, project managers, people who have specialist security skills or who develop web-based technologies are in high demand.