Australian
Employment Trends

Updated: November 2022
A combination of publicly released data and our own research, to assist you in understanding current trends and help you make informed decisions.



Established as Australia’s first firm of registered psychologists, we grew to become the market-leading provider of fully integrated human resources services, products and technology. With almost 1000 staff across 25 offices Chandler Macleod supports more than 3,500 clients with blue collar / white collar, traditional recruitment and RPO/MSP services everyday.


TRENDING: The battle to find workers in preparation for the holiday season


The push into Christmas will be a challenging one this year for many businesses, but especially those who rely on seasonal workers to help push through additional demands over the period. As we know, the impact of COVID restrictions combined with low unemployment rate have entered us into the perfect storm of a candidate-short market.

Indeed data suggests the shortfall is already being felt with a 5% increase of job postings mentioning Christmas keywords vs the same time last year. Unfortunately, job seeker activity is not matching this demand with data for Christmas job searches lagging behind previous years, and businesses cannot rely on ‘quick recruitment’ campaigns that have previously been the go-to.

Read on for what we’re seeing in the employment market, the challenges employers are reporting, and how we are all adapting to meet the demand for staff that just aren’t there in the capacity of years gone by.


Extraordinary and Unprecedented Labour Market Challenges

As the clouds continue to brew on the horizon with inflation pressures and supply shortages, we need to continue to maximise the “now” whilst equally preparing for what is to come. With cost-of-living pressure rising and unemployment at all time lows, candidates are entering into salary negotiations with a new level of confidence. However, do not underestimate the power of stability, Best Fit employment and a great employee value proposition.

In a recent survey I was reading, 40% of candidates who accepted an offer said they would not make the same choice again. This is powerful insight and speaks to the value of finding the right candidate for your role.

We operate across all sectors of the economy from raw materials to finished goods, across all elements of the services sector and the Public Sector including education. Whilst the talent shortage is most pronounced in areas like Engineering, Banking, Technology and Health & Aged Care, no sectors are immune from the developing talent crisis.

Now is the time to lock in your strategy and look beyond your BAU. Look at opportunities you can provide for training and take a good hard (honest) look at your employee value proposition because after all, once you’ve found the elusive talent in this market – you want to make sure you keep them!

What we’re seeing in the market


“The disconnect between slow employment growth and near-record job vacancies points towards increased difficulty filling these roles.” Callam Pickering, Senior Economist,
Indeed Hiring Lab

What our clients are saying

We asked our teams of talent professionals to share what they were hearing on the frontline of the candidate crisis. The comments were varied, but there were some key themes:

  1. 1.There is a dire shortage of candidates
  2. 2.The skill shortage continues to create issues
  3. 3.Employers are getting more flexible in response to the shortages and looking at flexibility and conditions before salary increases.
  4. 4.Employers are looking to the future to ensure skill growth and assess their EVP to ensure retention of quality employees.


How businesses are adapting

As we all adapt to the evolving landscape of recruitment there are some trending changes being made. Here are the main changes we see being implemented.

While demand has softened overall in recent months, there are still significant skill shortages in key role grouping. The shortage is pushing up salaries in these areas, so finding the balance between right skills and right price is increasingly challenging. Rebecca Thomas, Solutions Director, Chandler Macleod XPO

Top ways we see our customers adapting in the current climate

Businesses are being more flexible in requirements of candidates (than 12 months ago)



The labour dilemma

Where have all the workers gone?

The perfect storm of low unemployment, low immigration and student pools, coupled with skills shortages mean employers have to work harder to find (and train) employees who previously would have been much more available to them.

In June 2022 the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that nearly a third of businesses (31%) were having difficulty sourcing suitable staff. This will be particularly concerning in the lead up to, and over the holiday period when traditionally seasonal workers were employed to cover gaps in labour requirements.

Of these businesses having difficulty securing staff, the primary reported reasons were lack of applicants (79%) and applicants not having the required experience or qualifications (59%). "

"Time to hire has increased, however a more important measure right now needs to be Aging of Open jobs. The roles that are being filled are taking longer to fill, but its the roles that aren't being filled that are really blowing out in terms of the number of days open. Whilst it takes a long time to find the right talent, clients have got much better at pushing people through their processes to offer once they do identify the right candidate.” Rebecca Thomas, Solutions Director, Chandler Macleod XPO

Difficulty finding staff by business segment (June 2022)

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Factors impacting ability to find staff

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Students and working visas remain low

Traditionally, students would have made up part of the casual and holiday workforce. Domestic students still exist (of course!) however, with the lack of skilled candidates, their job prospects have moved higher up the chain. Adrian Lund, General Manager of Client Services at Chandler Macleod comments “one of the interesting adaptations we are seeing from our clients is looking to the student workforce to make up shortfalls where they would have previously hired skilled, fully qualified people.” Whilst this is a great opportunity for our students, it does leave a challenge in those sectors who were relying on them (particularly retail and hospitality sectors).

International student numbers diminished during the height of the COVID period, and numbers are still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels with the Department of Education reporting 4% less enrolments in Jan-July 2022 than in Jan – July 2021.

Likewise there has been a decline in applications for skilled visa’s, and whilst this seems to be on the upturn according to the Department of Home Affairs, we are yet to see the full positive effects on our workforces.

International student numbers (Australia)

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Skilled Visa Applications Granted

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The skills shortage – what we are seeing


Clients are now being more flexible in considering candidates without the required skill set/experience and willing to offer intensive training in the industry providing candidates have the right attitude, work ethic and willingness to learn. - Caitlin Lumis, Chandler Macleod Team Leader

With the tightening of the Australian labour market and immigration not returning to pre-pandemic levels, the skills shortage is on the rise. The National Skills Commission predicts that employers will increasingly compete for workers, resulting in greater number of occupations in shortage as employers are unable to fill advertised vacancies.

The Skills Priority List (SPL) identifies occupations in Australia that are in shortage, while also providing an assessment of future demand. In August 2022, the SPL showed that 31% of occupations assessed were in shortage at a national level.

In 2022, Chandler Macleod has been supporting organisations to actively work against this trend with specially designed return to work and skill training programs such as our No Glass Ceiling programs aimed at women over 45 years, and the Women in Solar program with Beon Energy Solutions.


Proportion of occupations in shortage on the 2021 and 2022 SPL, by Major Occupation Group

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Top 20 occupations in demand

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Looking to the future – what can we expect

The RBA’s August report on monetary policy reports that the Australian Economy is expected to grow strongly over 2022 before slowing next year and that strong demand for labour will push the unemployment rate to decline to three and a quarter per cent in late 2022 and remain low by the standards of recent decades.

They further conclude that employment will continue to grow strongly during 2022 before moderating as growth in activity slows. Participation in the labour force is expected to remain at historically high levels supported in part but the increase of older workers and increasing participation of women in the workforce due to rising inflation and cost of living pressures.

Following the reopening of the international border earlier this year, immigration could help to alleviate labour shortages in some industries over time, while also adding to demand in the economy however, as mentioned earlier, this is not yet shown in the data.


Source

The battle for talent continues – how you can win?


As businesses respond to increasing costs and decreasing confidence, growth and subsequent hiring will slow in the short term. However, the latest projections show continued growth until 2026 – with growth highest in service industries and still in those jobs requiring higher level qualifications. Even today, more than 9 out of 10 jobs will require further study after school but will this drop in the short term as hirers compromise on minimum requirements.

Employer demand for permanent hires continues to rise, up 8.3% in the last quarter (the 3rd quarter in a row). Employers continue to shift their workforce balance away from flexible solutions to permanent hires to lock in this headcount. Source ABS


Queensland reports the strongest growth in the June quarter – 15.5%. Their relatively late opening of the interstate borders has given the state an important boost in key sectors such as hospitality and tourism.
Victoria has made a recovery, job vacancies rose a further 10.8% building on the 4.1% rise reported last quarter. Its year-on-year growth rate of 31.1% is the highest of all states and territories.


...or at least approach the finish line

There’s two aspects to staying in this race. One is looking to the future – improving your EVP, measuring employee experience, looking at skill shortages and where you can contribute to filling them rather than just passively riding the rollercoaster. The second is how do you survive in the short term, effectively attracting and retaining quality candidates on fair salary rates without heavily impacting the bottom line.

We live and breathe this every day and here’s how we are helping businesses adapt to these changing times.


Clients more willing to engage in partnership conversations to tailor their EVP to make it more attractive to candidates. Flexibility now crucial in most white collar mandates. Blue-collar continues to be challenged around absenteeism, immigration and inconsistent vaccination requirements. Brett Johnson, General Manager, Chandler Macleod Victoria

What candidates are looking for

In a recent Chandler Macleod poll, 73% of candidates agreed that the hiring process affected their desire to work for a company and almost 72% believe the onboarding process shapes their outlook for the remainder of their employment. So, it’s important to get off on the right foot.

But what are candidates looking for? We asked our consultants their take on what candidates want and their top 4 mentions were Salary (45%), Flexibility (34%), Company Culture (8%) and Stability and Job Security (13%). This certainly matches up with recent data from Linkedin showing there was a 60% uptick in job posts mentioning flexibility since 2019 and that the number one reason employees leave their companies is the lack of career progression or opportunities for growth.

Whilst salary and flexibility are clearly going to be defining issues in the pre-employment and attraction phase, businesses need to look at their EVP and company culture factors if they are to impact their talent retention rates. With the employment market looking to stay on this trajectory for at least the next 3-4 months, it’s time to take a good hard look at your long term strategies for people management.

Most important to candidates according to recruitment professionals (October 2022)

Creating workplaces and cultures that meet candidate expectations. Most organisations are falling behind in being able to provide a purpose driven workplace that can accommodate their employees working in a way that suits their lifestyle and personal values. Organisations that fail to change and persist with "2020 thinking" will continue to have an increasingly difficult time attracting candidates, which will drive up cost to hire, inhibit ability to deliver the to organisational objectives and ultimately impact overall business performance. Prioritising this change should be on the agenda for every C-suite member. Rebecca Thomas, Solutions Director xPO

Can we help?

We’re currently helping thousands of businesses navigate this tricky time, and future proof their business and staffing plans. We can provide support with:

  • Staffing
  • EVP
  • Training and development
  • Leadership development

Email us if you’d like a confidential chat about how we can help.


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