Bad news is good

Overall, the economy is not healthy. The DEEWR’s Leading Indicator of Employment has fallen for the seventeenth consecutive month.  

Manpower’s latest survey also paints a pretty bleak picture of employers’ sentiment, with the index heading to negative territory.

The latest Skill Vacancy Index , which monitors the number of job vacancies advertised on newspapers, is down by 62.6% from last year. Likewise the new Internet Vacancy Index (now aggregating data from SEEK, MyCareer, CareerOne and Australian JobSearch) is down by 7.7%.

As depressing as the numbers currently are, they serve an important purpose in highlighting where priorities should lie, and are an important reminder that an upturn would eventually come. As Bo Bennett  puts it – “ As sure as the spring will follow the winter, prosperity and economic growth will follow recession.”  Hang in there (next: strategy in a downturn)