Here’s the latest ABS data on the distribution of the Australian workforce (refer table). Health Care industry is by far the largest employer. Sectors like mining, in spite of getting all the media attention, employs only 1.5% of the workforce. While the manufacturing sector, arguably a dying industry, is the fourth largest employer it’s clear that the Australia is predominantly a service economy. And that trend is likely to continue for years to come.  Read more...

If you are a recruiter, the best way to make sense of the national unemployment rate, which currently sits at 5.3%, is to ignore it. Well, not really. But the real meat of the unemployment story lies in regional data. Broken down by states, Tasmania and NSW lead the nation in unemployment numbers, while employers in states like NT and ACT are likely to struggle with recruiting the right staff (Refer chart. Source: ABS).

 Read more...

Jeff Weiner, CEO of Linkedin, wants the company to be synonymous with ‘talent’ just as ‘Internet Search’ is for Google. In an interview with Techcrunch, he talks about past achievements and sheds light on future plans. Not surprisingly, Linkedin’s recruitment products are the largest and fastest growing part of the business. However, Jeff is careful to differentiate Linkedin from job boards. Here’s his take:  Read more...

A new report by Ipsos suggested that employees are becoming more loyal. According to the study, the majority (55%) of the 1022 Australians surveyed last month indicated they would remain loyal even if they get offered a higher pay elsewhere.  A similar study by Kelly Services in March (sample size of 20,000) found that 44% percent of respondents are ‘totally committed’ to their current employer.  Read more...

Here are five reports well worth a look.

Flexible Workplace
Rubicor’s report on flexible work arrangement in Australian workplaces uncovered surprising insights. The vast majority (86%) of organisations have some form of flexible workplace initiatives in place, yet 57% do not promote the benefits effectively to job seekers.  Employers faltered at selling their EVP effectively.

 Read more...

The Australian Public Service Commission (APS) released stage one of a report which evaluated recruitment advertising activities across different agencies.

Some interesting results:  Read more...

• Data collection – Of the 104 FMA agencies only 45 FMA agencies collected source-of-hire data (Only those who collected data were included in the evaluation). Not surprisingly data collection problems exist  – “Response to the evaluation survey suggests that those agencies that utilise an e-recruitment system were able to provide detailed survey responses more efficiently than those agencies that had to manually check through paper files. There was also anecdotal evidence that an e-recruitment system, however, does not ensure accuracy of applicant information. An agency advised that applicants appeared to be selecting the first item on a drop-down list of advertisement sources”

Three months ago we embarked on a study to better understand the behaviour of executives in Australia. The results from the study, involving 1332 executives across Australia, can be downloaded here.

The study offered many insights but also raised new questions,a nd many of the findings merit further exploration. In the coming days, I will explore in greater detail many of the topics covered in the report. Without doubt this report is a first step in a journey of discovery. For now, it is my hope that the findings will trigger discussion within organisations on how they recruit, engage and manage executive talent.  Read more...

New data from Graduate Careers Australia sheds interesting light on the graduate employment sector.

2009 wasn’t a super year with the GFC affecting graduate recruitment intake. Only 79.2% of graduates were in full-time employment within four months of completing their degrees (down from 85.2%). Despite the downturn graduate salaries grew, with the median starting salary perched at $48,000 compared to $45,000 a year ago. Around 30% of employers have sourcing difficulty in certain disciplines.  Read more...

Thought for the week
“Recession or no recession, corporate and IT leaders continue to see a key role for IT, especially in regard to capturing efficiencies across the enterprise. Many expect IT investments to grow soon.”  – McKinsey Global Survey

Labour Market Data
Effective recruitment planning is hard without data. Here’s the latest labour data from the ABS.  Read more...

Close to 1,500 executives participated in our study, so far. Participants offered a rich kaleidoscope of stories, experiences and viewpoints about remuneration, work and the labour market, particularly in the comments section of the survey.  I am reproducing one by Brian C (with his permission) below:  Read more...

Go Home
Today is ‘Go Home On Time Day’, a brainchild of Australia Institute which recently conducted a comprehensive study on overtime work in Australia. Are you leaving office early today?.

Academia Blues
Melissa Gregg thinks that academia is no longer a smart choice.

JobDash
Jobdash, a career management tool for IT professionals, is already capitalising on Linkedin’s new API announcement.  Jobdash can be used to  ‘track and Filter real-time Employment Offers from Twitter and LinkedIn status updates’. Our world is rapidly changing.  Read more...

I attended Atlassian’s Open House party last night. 300 plus people turned up.

Few observations:
A strong employment brand alone does not guarantee a steady flow of talent. Organisations who attract talent does so because they work hard at it.  Universally recognised brands are often the ones rolling up their sleeves.  Read more...

A new friend tweeted – “you are the person I think of when I am after statistics”.

Though flattered, I never really see myself as a statistician. It doesn’t matter that I worked in marketing for the last seven years, some see me as a numbers man because for a variety of reasons that’s the way they experienced my work and brand. Yes, there are many who sees me as a marketer, some may know me as a blogger, some as a cricket tragic, and so on and so forth.  Read more...

In April Michael Specht and I embarked on a journey to try and understand the various sources of talent in Australia. A survey was conducted tracking the hiring practices of 409 organisations who made a total of 92,136 hires in the last 12 months. The final report compares the effectiveness of 17 (20 if we do not band some sources together) identifiable sources of talent.  Read more...

The Source of Talent, 09 report has been released. It’s free, download here (Name and email required).