Quarterly Industry News June 2021

Posted On 29 Jun 2021

Quarterly Industry News June 2021

29 Jun 2021

Candidate Resource, Employer Resource, News & Events

EST10’s Quarterly Industry News June 2021

EST10’s Quarterly Industry News to keep you up-to-date and with a finger always on the pulse. Where has the last 6 months disappeared to? From January to now, the time has flown by! The job flow has been constant without experiencing the standard Easter recruitment lull. We have been fortunate in keeping busy, balancing recruitment work with other varied social and educational activities and relishing the opportunity to do what we love!

The job vacancy rate has continued to rise–a promising and encouraging sign for the economy and market. According to SEEK, there were ‘220,000 new job ads in April, the highest in the online employment platform’s 23-year history’. However, the chase for talent has never been fiercer, with a ‘sharp fall in job applications, per job ad, the lowest since 2012’, according to SEEK’s MD for Australia, Kendra Banks.

In response to our ‘fight for talent’, we are pleased to see employers embracing attraction and retention strategies, such as upskilling, flexible working arrangements, adding additional tasks and responsibilities to current roles and increasing vitality and job engagement.

Permanent Market Update

In response to the intense competition for talent, we saw an increase in salaries across the board. The initial spike occurred in the third quarter of 20/21 and has settled since. The overall result has been an increase in salaries of between 5-20%. For more on salaries, please review EST10’s most recent Salary Guide.

Bonuses have also seen a resurgence for retention purposes on permanent and contract roles and sign-up bonuses are also being utilised. Additionally, in June, The Fair Work Commission’s wage panel increased minimum salaries by 2.5 %, for over 2 million workers.

The latest employment figures released, 17th June 2021, show unemployment sitting at 5.1% and the underemployment rate at 7.4%. We anticipate the challenge in sourcing talent to continue, with the hiring practices of yesterday to be transformed to more visionary models.

Consider our blogs ‘The Real Cost Of Your Empty Seat‘ and ‘Do you see what I see?‘

‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’

– Albert Einstein

Temp Market Update

The temp market continues to be strong and with candidates in high demand. With a decrease in immigration and many of our WHV holders having returned home, Australia is indeed bearing witness to a candidate shortage within this temporary placement space. This is also where we are seeing the highest increase in hourly rates for candidates.

Companies are utilising temporary placements to ‘fill the gap’ when sourcing for a permanent role. This is a great and smart strategy for companies in opening up candidate options perhaps not considered previously. As a result, there has been a high conversion of temp-to-perm placements, sometimes within a matter of days.

There is good news on the horizon from the new trade deal between the UK and Australia at the G7 summit. This new historic deal has benefits geared towards working holiday visa holders under 35 in both countries.

Read our blog on what we are calling ‘The Great Candidate Shortage‘

Word on the Street

Whilst Australia is experiencing another wave of COVID, and with Greater Sydney in lockdown, the feel from the business community seems to be one of resilience. For the most part, businesses have adapted and moved swiftly to remote working. The sentiment from a lot of corporates seems to be ‘business as usual’. However, there is a large contingent of small businesses significantly impacted by our latest shutdowns, cafés, restaurants, tourism, hospitality, gyms, hair and beauty salons. Some of these businesses may not recover from this shutdown, as short as we might see it. For some, it may be the final straw.

At EST10, it was a smooth transition, and we had plans in place and ‘mobilised’ seemingly quickly and efficiently, with our team meeting on Monday morning going ahead via Zoom, with no hitches. It is fortunate in some ways that we have been somewhat used to working remotely, and so it’s business as usual. Even our lovely Olivia has been working remotely as she travels around Australia at present–you may see some of her posts via our EST10 page, campfire and laptop combined! Whilst we are all busy working from home and grateful to be safe, I have to say, I am one to prefer the camaraderie and banter you have from a face-to-face office!

This past month we were delighted to be involved in the Vinnies Sleepout and excited to have been able to raise $11,606! Thank you so much for all your support! We have signed up for it again next year and with a target of $20,000! You can read more about the experience ‘Sleeping Rough’ and the Vinnies CEO Sleepout.

Employable

Employable–the book I wrote during COVID to help all of us have control over our employment and if we ever have to face another crisis, to feel secure in our own high employability.

I have never been so challenged and tested as I was in writing Employable. I hope it gives you as much joy in reading as it gave me in writing. It’s in bookstores from 1st July, although going to a bookstore at this time is not the reality for a lot of us, luckily Booktopia is just a click away!

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About the author

Roxanne Calder

Managing Director

As Founder and Managing Director at EST10, Roxanne has an all-encompassing role that includes building and growing the business, as well as actively recruiting and consulting.

After completing a Bachelor’s Degree at Monash University, Roxanne began her recruitment career with renowned recruiter Julia Ross. From there, Roxanne worked in HR and recruitment with a number of global players and boutique businesses throughout Australia, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong for over 20 years. She has been responsible for managing large teams and projects, implementing RPO models, managing and assisting businesses to an IPO and assisting companies in setting up their recruitment teams and processes.

Following completion of her MBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management, Roxanne launched EST10 in July 2010. In doing so, she hoped to combine the flexibility and high touch service levels of boutique agencies with the structure and strategy afforded to larger firms. Roxanne believes in high-touch, high-care consulting and is always on the lookout for consultants that share this vision of recruitment.