Employment in Australia is seeing better days with jobs being recovered or reinstated. According to the latest figures on Australia’s labour force report released in January, nearly 13 million people are employed while more than 875,000 are not by January 21. Those numbers represent a 6.4% decrease in unemployment and 8.1% decrease in underemployment.

Things are definitely looking up, but it is still an uphill battle for the land down under, especially for recruiters. The job market remains competitive and it is up to recruiters to help candidates secure the job they need to recover.

Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout is in motion and is hoping to vaccinate all Aussie adults by October. According to the federal health minister, the rollout is “slightly ahead of schedule” which is a great thing. When the time comes that Australia managed to establish herd immunity, we will have to learn to live with pandemic-driven changes inside the workplace.

Part-Time vs Full-Time

One big change amidst the jobs recovery is the substantial shift of balance between full-time employment and part-time employment. Initially, part-time jobs dominated the recovery, but now, slowly but surely, we are seeing full-time jobs on the lead. The pandemic generated newfound appreciation for part-time or contract employment. Moving forward, part-time employment might be a stopgap to mitigate the damages of long-term unemployment for thousands of people in the country.

Growing Candidate Concerns

Candidates have more concerns than usual when applying for jobs. Most of them are asking about company stability, career mobility, reskilling opportunities and mental health support programs. There should be a renewed focus on mental health support and that employees should receive those programs right from the recruitment stage. Professionals are demanding more from their employers. We can’t blame them after the nightmare of losing their jobs and financial security last year. Recruiters are now dealing with a more enlightened workforce.

Moving forward, recruiters must be more transparent and accountable during the hiring process. This is a great opportunity for recruiters and talent acquisition specialists to reinvent or improve their recruitment models to address pandemic-driven changes among candidates. It is important for recruiters to determine accelerators and disruptors that would influence engagement across their target market.

A Tough Market Still

There aren’t enough jobs for everyone and that will remain a reality for months to come. From the candidate’s perspective, the competitive market is a big problem. One job post would surely generate hundreds or even thousands of candidate applications. As recruiters, it is our responsibility to hand job roles to the most deserving candidates and of course, break the bad news to those who didn’t.

A Future of Uncertainties

There are definitely reasons to be happy about, for example, the permanent $50 increase in the JobSeeker allowance. According to the Australian Taxation Office, there has been a significant fall in the number of people relying on the JobKeeper subsidy with the scheme to end on March 28.

However, there are more reasons, I am not saying to be scared about, but to encourage my fellow recruiters to work harder moving forward. The future is still full of uncertainties and all we can really do is to go to work everyday and help people land jobs they deserve and need.

Here at Quay, what we value above all is our candidate care engagement. There is no substitute for the human connection during the recruitment stage and this way, we are able to be strategic and at the same time, empathetic. We recently received our accreditation as Candidate Experience Experts from Recruiter Insider after receiving a 94+ candidate feedback score. We are truly thankful for this and it fuels us to even better ourselves.