Here are a few observations on our market as at April 2011
2 Speed Economy with a WA Fever Pitch Approaching
More than 10,000 jobs were lost in February across Australia. Quite an unusual statement to read, given the incredible increase in growth WA has experienced in the job market over the last 3-6 months, yet it’s a fact. It shows the 2 speed economy prevalent across our country right now. Whilst the March data shows an overall increase in employment, with almost 38,000 jobs created nationally in the month, the dichotomy of economic cycles still remains.
We have experienced a continuous, consistent increase in client demand of our services since late June 2010, however the “Fever Pitch” level of demand is only starting to show glimpses of emergence in the last 3-4 weeks; probably since late January in earnest. A notable number of organisations are setting up from scratch in WA and recruiting “talent clusters”, as global Head Offices invest in WA as a place to be in the coming years.
Unprecented Project Demand
I feel it’s important to remember that in the last talent shortage period of 2005-2008, we didn’t have anything resembling the scale of Gorgon pulling on our talent. This might be a key difference now, coupled with the inordinate amount of projects due to be undertaken in Western Australia to the tune of $125 billion, committed to but not yet commenced in an Engineering or Construction sense. It has been predicted that Western Australia will require 500,000 skilled workers to keep up with the demand.
Unemployment Relativities - Sources of Candidate Supply?
Western Australia’s latest unemployment figure stands at 4.2% (down 0.4% from January); relative full employment figures quoted are largely subjective, yet it’s safe to say that “low 4’s” are close to this predicament.
Across the nation, the level of unemployment has generally been declining over the last eleven years from 9.4% according to Roy Morgan unemployment estimates to around 5% as at last published data. Given we have had two downturns (2001, 2008) in that time, the primary movement of unemployment may suggest we are having to deal with a longer-term issue of labour shortage across the country.
Having said that, the world is your market and just knowing that a lot of First World, English speaking countries are carrying unemployment rates of 10%+ should give you a fair indication of the source of candidates for high-demand areas. The graph below UK and Ireland rates, as well as Spain and Poland, 2 countries that house a fair amount of “heavy industry” professionals.
Clever Strategies Still Finding Talent
So given all this evidence above, non-traditional and lateral thinking recruitment approaches are going to become more and more popular as we continue towards this local talent drought. Whilst we are finding that there is still a decent amount of talent in the market, particularly at the middle to senior management level, the future is pointing to lateral thinking recruitment strategies. It seems a lot of talent decided to “sit tight” in their current roles through GFC and somewhat after, and are willing to edge from their sitting position if the right opportunity is presented to them in the right way, but this too will dry up soon in our view.
Think about your strategies to attract talent (you do have one, right?) or partner with a consultancy who can help you devise one. The skill in sourcing the right talent from your non-traditional sources will be the difference between getting the “right people on the bus” and having a vacant role become a source of frustration as you get busier in your own role.
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