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Strong jobs growth in all areas

Skilled workers in big demand

ALL STATES and Territories in Australia are expecting strong employment growth in the coming 12 months, with Queensland leading the pack at a positive 33.7 per cent.
Both Queensland, Australia's fastest-growing state, and New South Wales, the most populous, showed employment growth at the highest level since 2001.
In both States the strongest positive outlook was for Professional services, followed by IT in New South Wales, according to April's quarterly Hudson Report on Employment Expectations.
A recovering global economy and improved business sentiment across the board will drive employment opportunities in Australia over the June quarter. Nationally, 35.2 per cent of employers intend to increase staff numbers, compared with 7.9 per cent who expect to reduce staff numbers over the same period, resulting in a positive net effect of 27.3 per cent - up 1.5 per cent on the previous quarter.
The Report recorded a particularly positive outlook in sectors highly exposed to international markets, such as Professional Services, Information Technology, Utilities and Telecommunications.
The Employment Expectations results published by Hudson, a world-wide leader in the provision of recruitment and human resource consulting services, are positive for the third consecutive quarter suggesting that market stability may have finally returned, following four straight quarterly declines.
CEO of Hudson Australasia, Anne Hatton, said, "The global economic recovery is beginning to gain traction in the domestic market, particularly in the sectors most influenced by international circumstances.
"Furthermore, there has been a jump of some 12 percentage points in employment expectations in the Advertising/Marketing/Media sector since the last quarter, indicating that businesses are starting to promote themselves once again - a real sign of confidence."
Queensland, already the fastest growing state in Australia in terms of population, jumped ahead of Canberra as the state with the most optimistic outlook for job opportunities in the coming quarter.
New South Wales recorded the biggest single jump of the regions surveyed, up 5.4 per cent to +27.0 per cent, a three year high for employment optimism in that State.
Each of the major industry sectors surveyed are expecting to increase staff levels in the June 2004 quarter, with eight of the 16 sectors returning higher net effects than the national employment expectations average of +27.3 per cent.
Professional Services continues to boom, up 3.2 per cent on the previous quarter to +43.2 per cent, followed by Information Technology (+38.8 per cent), Utilities (+35.7 per cent) and Telecommunications (+35.1 per cent).
Mrs Hatton said that the increased demand for knowledge workers, at a time when unemployment levels remain low, could result in growing pressure on wages and a greater need than ever for employers to ensure they have strategies in place to retain their best people.
"The demand for skilled workers is showing no signs of abating, so the advantage is still in the hands of the employee and a 'War for Talent' continues."
The most exciting outlook is in the Advertising/Marketing/Media sector, with a massive 12.5 per cent increase to a net positive effect of 31.7 per cent, which indicates that companies are increasingly prepared to promote themselves and spend the dollars required to do so.
As forecast in the previous Hudson Report, the Construction/Property/Engineering sector has taken the biggest tumble, down 7.9 per cent, as the domestic residential market continues to slow.
Despite ongoing talk in the media about the global demand for Australian resources, employment expectations in that sector have also fallen (down 7.4 per cent) for the June 2004 quarter, suggesting that this sector might be close to full capacity.
Tourism & Hospitality has also fallen, down 5.2 per cent, which Hatton attributes to the impact of further trouble in the Middle East and the threat of more disruption from terrorist groups, as recently evidenced by the Madrid bombings.
There was a net fall in Contract and Temporary employment for the March 2004 quarter, when compared with the previous quarter.
Although 23.8 per cent of employers surveyed by Hudson indicated that they increased their contracting/temporary workforce over the past three months, 12.0 per cent said they reduced their levels, and 64.2 per cent indicated that their contracting/temporary workforce remained steady. The resulting net effect was +11.8 per cent, down 3.2 per cent on the previous quarter surveyed.
Interestingly the Construction/Property/Engineering sector was up 7.3 per cent, to +21.4 per cent, which is surprising given the significant decline in this sector in permanent employment expectations for the coming quarter.
"This may be the result of employers in the building sector laying off their permanent people as the market has softened. These workers are turning to contracting work as a result," Hatton added.
All states and territories recorded a fall in their contracting/temporary workforce for the March 2004 quarter, with Queensland returning the highest net positive result (+18.3) and the Canberra the lowest (+7.1 per cent).
The Hudson Report
l Based on nation-wide research, The Hudson Report uncovers and analyses the hiring expectations of Australian employers over the coming quarter, and provides insights into a range of topical human resource issues impacting business.
Results from the Q2 2004 Hudson Report were gathered through 6,972 surveys conducted by Hudson recruitment and consulting professionals. The Employment Expectations component of the Hudson Report was previously known as the Job Index Survey. Copies of the Hudson Report are available at www.hudson.com