The Australian Bureau of Statistics report “Labour Force, Australia, Oct 2008″ just released has reported that the unemployment rate has remained at 4.3% because of 43,500 part-time jobs created last month, despite a loss of full-time jobs.
Read more from a news.com.au article “Unemployment rate steady at 4.3pc” and a smh.com.au article “Economy goes part-time”.
Australia is still experiencing a skills shortage in some fields despite changes in the skilled migration system according to a recent article in The Australian “Migration not helping skills shortage”.
There are still shortages for roles such as nurses, dentists, engineers, radiographers, urban planners, occupational therapists, electricians, bakers, bricklayers, mechanics, carpenters and chefs.
If you are interested in migrating to Australia, JOBX in conjunction with National Visas offers a free online assessment where overseas job seekers can complete a free questionnaire providing them with a review of their eligibility to gain a visa for Australia. You can also get details on the types of Skilled Visas .
A recent article “The pain and potential of Facebook in the office” in the Sydney Morning Herald has reviewed several aspects of using Facebook at work, looking at the legal aspects from both the employee and employer’s perspectives.
Facebook can be used to assist in your search for a new job by letting your friends know that you are interested in new job opportunities. JOBX has developed several fun tools to help you use Facebook in your job searching:
JOBX has just recently added some very exciting domains to its list of site. Whilst we are still designing the format the sites will contain more jobs and some very interesting information for job seekers.
The new URL’s are:
www.job.com.au
www.jobs.net.au
jobs.canberra.iprime.com.au
jobs.newcastle.iprime.com.au
jobs.wollongong.iprime.com.au
jobs.ourpatch.com.au
jobs.ozfreeonline.com
These are a great addition to the already interesting www.jobx.com.au
A new salary survey in New Zealand’s has released results for the top paying jobs in the county. This could be useful for those of you finishing year twelve deciding what course to study.
The Hays Recruitment survey covers 11 sectors and hundreds of jobs, tracking pay increases and comparing New Zealand wages with their Australian counterparts.
According to Hays New Zealand managing director Jason Walker students after jobs that are in demand should look into IT, construction, engineering, accounting and finance and law.
Walker says Australian wages are 25% higher on average than New Zealand, but because New Zealand companies are smaller workers recieve a wider range of work experience. IT in particular is an industry to keep an eye on because even although jobs are indemand the number of IT students dropped after the dotcom crash and there is not enough supply to meet demand. Canterbury University computer science associate professor Tim Bell, says that demand is so high, students are getting job offers before they even graduate.
Experts say demand for workers in the IT sector is high and students who train in the field can have their pick of jobs and secure big pay packets. Figures released last week by Hays Recruitment backed this up and workers in specialist fields could earn as much as $150,000.
A report released last week by Chandler Macleod shows even although internal HR departments insist they are becoming more accountable and efficient, this is not actually the case. The results were obtained by interviewing 166 employers throughout Australia and the results are surprising to say the least.
They postulated the cost to the Australian employer is about $15,000 and 80 days per hire which seems ridiculously high. In addition, it was found only 4 % of the employers interviewed had a retention strategy.
The study found the overwhelming majority of companies used reactionary recruitment strategies, in that all funds and time was focused on filling immediate vacancies as they arose rather then following long term strategies.
Latest research has provided evidence that sound recruitment practises minimise costs, and although this seems to be a topic discussed at a board level it is not being carried through to HR departments
General Manager for Talent Management Services at Chandler Macleod, Sue Healy feels companies are not being creative in their recruitment practises.
“There’s a whole range of strategies that could be used but I think [employers] still stick to the agencies and stick to the job boards.”
As for HR departments being more scientific and accountable the report showed 65% of companies sad they had no structure to measure critical recruitment metrics including retention, quality of hire, and cost and time to hire.
Powerful men in the most sought after, highly regarded jobs in country revealed their dream jobs to the Financial Review recently. For some reason being a teachers appears to be the most popular choice, but, I am sure were they to swap their current salary cheques for a $50 grand per year teachers salary they would be singing a different tune.
The online publication, Human Resource Magazine has come up with some surprising and controversial statistics on the Australian workforce. Results came from surveys of workers and are likely to be pretty representative due to the use of large sample sizes.
Human Synergistics found 70% of the generation X workforce in Australia are dissatisfied with their work conditions. The survey included more than 250,000 workers across 1,500 organisations and revealed some of the areas where generation X are discontent. Workers felt they did not have enough organisational support, lacked career prospects within their current role and were dissatisfied with co-worker relationships.
A James Adonis survey showed one in five managers hate their employees. They found more than 20 per cent of managers did not like, respect or enjoy working with their employees. In addition, 39 per cent of the managers surveyed did not fell they were very good at being managers.
The study also asked the managers if they believed their organisations are “employers of choice”, and 41 per cent of managers responded that they were not.
A Onetest survey found 70% of Australians employees prefer male bosses.A survey of 4,300 Australian workers revealed that while 68 per cent of workers are happy to work for either a man or a woman, those who had a preference mainly preferred a male boss, regardless of their own gender. Respect for bosses was high overall, with more than 90 per cent saying they respected their current boss (findings quite contradictory to the previous survey.)
LinkMe found more than half of Australian companies are turning their backs on environmentally-friendly initiatives. According to a survey of 1,000 Australian employees, 35% said iit was time the government instituted laws to ensure that bosses participate, while 25% believed managers do not care about environmental issues at all. Furthermore, 33% reported that environmental initiatives are never even considered or discussed in their workplace.
67% of accounting firms doubt the loyalty of generation Y staff. According to recent recruitment survey by Link Recruitment more than 90% of managers consider generation Y to be different from their generation X counterparts. Many believe 18–27 year olds have unrealistic expectations about salary entitlements and pace of career progression.
A recent Seek survey found that about a third of Health care workers demand ethical workplaces. Medical staff questioned believed good company ethics would significantly improve their current workplace. According to a recent satisfaction and motivation survey, nearly half of respondents only intend on staying with their current employer for a year or less, while 18 per cent plan to stay on for three months or less. These findings are significant especially and suggests that the current drought of nurses and carers could get worse.
A new scheme will be put before the Productivity Commission tomorrow whereby women could receive 6 months paid maternity leave with full pay.
One catch is this proposed scheme will cost the government $3.5 billion to deliver, a cost too expensive to fund through the current tax system. Former senior public servant Julia Perry has drawn up a proposal that covers the cost with a combination of government money and taxed earnings.
Under the scheme, 0.5% of employees wages will be extracted and added to the $1 billion the government pays to fund the $5000 baby bonus for working women.
This will also benefit fathers and allow them four weeks paid paternity leave. Furthermore, the woman’s employer would get a subsidy to employ someone to replace
her while she’s on leave meaning that even smaller business will be able to adopt this scheme.
This plan sounds pretty flawless and it means that women are able to breastfeed and support their babies through their most formative years. It also lessens the fiscal pressure placed on young families which is particularly important considering the current economic climate.
The risk for government is real though as taxing the population at a higher rate is sure to cause a bit of a backlash and may not help with the approval ratings.
About seven months ago, in the dying days of the Howard Government, a bill was passed affecting the nature of the 457 visa . This last bill has proved to be extremely unpopular with immigration organisations, employer groups and companies of all sizes
The 457 visa is a temporary, long-stay visa, whereby overseas workers are sponsored by Australian companies in order to fill a perceived skill shortage. The costs involved are only a few hundred dollars per person. The changes pushed through by Howard place more conditions of business, including a training provision which requires them to allocate funds for employee development.
A number of employment organisations are against this bill with the IT Consulting and Recruitment Association (ITCRA) stating many of their members do not have the funds to meet the new provisions. This is resulting reduced sponsorship of overseas workers and decreased opportunities for local businesses to fill their skill shortages.
The latest from the federal government is that no changes will be made to the legislation and the policy adviser for the The Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA) Charles Cameron was extremely disappointed with the result.
It seems unlikely that a large company will be unable to provide or at least set aside funds for training, however it is likely to be smaller employers who suffer the most. It also sucks for those people hoping to be sponsored and relocate to Australia. Furthermore, it may have the flow on effect of directing skilled migrants to other countries where visa situations are more favourable. Only time will tell.
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