The last year and a half of weak employment expecations are looking to end…next year.
Th latest
Business Expectations Surveyfrom Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) found that employers are optimistic about hiring next year. This comes about despite the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of Australia’s unemployment rate rising from 5.7% to 6% in 2014.
In Q1 2014, 10% of the organisations surveyed by D&B intend to take on new staff, with 5% looking to reduce employment activity, indicating an overall increase in job expectations.
"These findings on employment intentions are a particular bright note among generally improving business sentiment," Danielle Woods, director of corporate affairs at Dun & Bradstreet, said. "This turnaround, especially given the recent lift in the official jobless rate, provides hope that forecasts for unemployment beyond the six per cent mark may be over-estimations, and that Australian businesses are in reasonable shape.”
While these findings may appear optimistic on the surface, jobseekers are unlikely to find solace in the idea that they might get a call back in March of next year.
Tudor Marsden-Huggins, managing director of Employment Office, recommended that employers begin recruitment now in the lead up to Christmas.
Marsden-Huggins stated that with many organisations winding down their recruitment strategies, job advertising hits a low in December, but job seekers are still on the hunt.
“Recruiting in December takes advantage of the fact that many top performers have a certain amount of down-time in in the last weeks of the year, whether that’s through taking annual leave or due to a decreased pre-Christmas workload,” he said.
The end of the year also causes many top performers to take a step back and evaluate their work/life situation, and start planning for the future. As such, some may be searching for their next step in life – for personal, monetary or professional reasons.
“Whatever the candidate’s motivation, it’s clear that even though other areas of your business may be slowing down, December is definitely not a time to put your recruitment function on hold. If you run a fast, clean hiring process, you can be making job offers before your competitors have even published their job ads in January,” Marsden-Huggins said.
Do you have a strategy for the coming months? Is Marsden-Huggins right, or should organisations be waiting until next year? Let us know your thoughts!
