Australian hiring expectations have hit a six year high off the back of a strong labour market according to the results from the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey for the first quarter of 2018.
The resulting national Net Employment Outlook (NEO)[1] is +14%, signaling that more Australian employers expect to increase staffing levels than not heading into the first quarter of the new year.
The survey collects data from nearly 59,000 employers in 43 countries, including over 1,500 in Australia.
This strong national result has increased by five percentage points since this time last year.
When compared globally, Australia has recorded the strongest year-over-year gain in the Asia Pacific region and the third strongest gain across the 43 surveyed countries.
All states and territories, sectors and organisation sizes have recorded a positive Outlook for Q1 2018.
ManpowerGroup Australia & New Zealand managing director Richard Fischer believes the latest data signals the underlying strength of the Australian economy and shows that all sectors are benefiting from the robust outlook although there are clear variations across the country.
“The employment outlook in Australia is now the strongest reported in more than six years and is showing no signs of slowing down as a rebound in the mining and construction sector adds to an already strong outlook in other key sectors such as finance”, he said.
Of all states and territories, employers in New South Wales report the strongest NEO at +21%, up nine percentage points quarter-over-quarter and 10 percentage points year-over-year. However, the greatest increases have been recorded in Queensland and Tasmania, both up eleven percentage points since this time last year.
“With a low unemployment rate and a strong outlook, the labour market is rapidly approaching the point at which the war for talent will see wages pressure return to the economy," Fischer said.
"Employers will need to reset their focus in the New Year if they want to attract and retain the very best employees.”
Earlier this week, CoreLogic released figures showing the outlook for construction projects in Australia remained strong.
CoreLogic captured 2,012 development applications and proposals in the construction pipeline across Australia in November.
This represents a small increase on the number of development applications captured in the previous month (+3.4%).
The number of projects added to the pipeline over November is also a higher flow than the five year average, which is approximately 1,777 new project applications per month across Australia.
Despite the end of large scale, mining-related construction in 2014, the number of new project applications added to the pipeline each month has trended upwards by an average of 30 projects since the end of 2014. This suggests that construction is continually expanding.
The largest increase in the number of new projects as of November was in the community space, which includes school and hospital upgrades.
This reflects the increased participation of the state governments in driving construction. The combined value of projects captured in the pipeline over November was $A19.8 billion.
This combined construction value is above the 5 year average of $13.7 billion, and was also substantially higher than the $17.6 billion recorded in October.
The construction value of projects that commenced over October rose by 31.9% on the previous month, to $5 billion. Again, this is slightly lower than the 5 year average of $5.4 billion.
However, as the thriving pipeline of projects begins to move into construction, the amount of work commencing each
month may rise consistently over 2018.