Workplace confidence rises in Australia

As Coronavirus situation in Australia is being effectively controlled, LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence Index has revealed a small rise in workplace confidence in Australia, according to Matt Tindale, Country Manager, LinkedIn Australia and New Zealand.

Tindale added that there is growing optimism surrounding job security and the long-term outlook of employment in certain industry sectors.

“SMB and mid-market employees, in particular, expect job opportunities to stop declining, suggesting the market may have starting to ‘bottom out’ for them,” he said.

“However, we are seeing discrepancy in terms of confidence across industries, with less than 40% of workers in the education, construction and manufacturing industries feeling optimistic in terms of outlook for their companies.

“On the other end of the spectrum, 64% of those in finance and software and IT services are significantly more confident about their long-term future.”

Key findings from the LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index include: 

Growing Confidence – Workplace confidence in Australia has risen, driven by a clearer picture of job security, and bump in Australian’s long-term outlook, suggesting we may have ‘bottomed out’
The Australian insights show that of the people polled confidence was +12 on a scale from -100 to +100, with positive sentiment increasing slightly from the previous report.

Finance

More than half of the Australian workforce (54%) reported a decrease in personal spending. This was a slight uptick over the prior two weeks (54% vs. 52%), with that number rising to 70% for the unemployed.

Job and Career

Australian respondents were less likely than 2 weeks ago to say their companies' short-term outlook was negative, suggesting that they feel things may be "bottoming out".

• 46% of Australians’ will increase their time spent on online learning, however only 23% will increase their time searching for job.
• Notably, only 51% of active job seekers will increase their time spent searching for jobs, a decrease from 59% two weeks ago.
• Enterprise employees are more likely to think the number of jobs available will decrease (66% vs. 55%).
• Members in the Public Administration industry are the most confident regarding job and personal finance prospects and have the highest confidence of any industry in Australia.
• There has been an overall decrease in the expectation for recruiters’ responses to continue to decrease, suggesting we may be ‘bottoming out’

SMB employees who are looking for work are becoming increasingly optimistic that opportunities will improve and continue to use their time by improving skills.

• There has been a 7% increase (16% vs 23%) in SMB employees’ who think they will be better off in 6 months-time, the most of all key employee segments.
• This trend is also reflected in a 2% decrease of SMB employees who believe they will be worse off in 6 months’ time (42% vs. 41%).
• The Australian workforce was less likely to think recruiter response would keep decreasing, perhaps suggesting things are starting to "bottom out", highlighted by employees in SMB (14% decrease in previous two weeks).
• There was a 6% reduction in SMB employees predicting that job availability will continue to decrease, hinting towards a growing optimism in the jobs market.
• 44% of SMB employees will increase their time spent improving skills via online learning
• 23% of SMB employees will increase their time spent searching for jobs.

Sector discrepancy – Employees in Education, Construction and Manufacturing sectors feel they will be in a tougher position in six months’ time, while employees in Finance and Software and IT Services are less pessimistic.

• 64% of employees in both the Finance and Software and IT Services sectors believe they will be better off in two years’ time. This is a stark contrast to employees in Education, with only 34% feeling they will be better off in two from now.
• Across all industries, the Australian workforce is more negative about short term (6 months) outlook and more positive about the long term (2 years) outlook.
• While still a low 18%, there was a 4% rise in employees who think their workplace will be in a better place in 6 months from now since the previous report.
• 49% of employees in Construction, and 47% of employees in Education feel they will be worse off in 6 months’ time, the highest of all industry.
• While still feeling they will be worse off, employees in Finance and Software and IT Services have a relatively positive short-term outlook, but a strong outlook