EMPLOYMENT GROWTH OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS

Over the past 8 months, we have all noticed an increased number of job vacancies, renewed job seeker confidence, concern over talent shortages are gaining momentum and employers are becoming increasingly concerned about where and how they will attract and recruit suitably skilled talent for their business.  For the first time in 6 years, its exciting to see that there are far more hiring managers confident about hiring people than making people redundant.

According to the Department of Employment’s recent report and analysis, employment is projected to increase in all states and territories in 16 of the 19 broad industry sectors over the next 5 years, up to 2022.

Health Care and Social Assistance is projected to make the largest contribution to employment growth (increasing by 250,500), followed by Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (126,400), Construction (120,700) and Education and Training (116,200). Together, these four industries are projected to provide more than half of total employment growth over the next five years.

New South Wales and Victoria, with high concentrations of service industries, are projected to make the largest contributions to employment growth. Employment is projected to grow by 8.4 per cent in NSW and 8.8 per cent in VIC.  The industry sectors leading the way include Health Care and Social Assistance; Professional, Scientific and Technical Services; Construction; and Education and Training industries are the major contributors to projected employment growth in these states, delivering 70 per cent of the 320,000 projected total employment growth in New South Wales and 65 per cent of the 274,600 projected total employment growth in Victoria.

Labour market conditions in Australia over the five years to October 2017 have experienced intermittent periods of both weakness and, more recently, considerable strength. Its also interesting to note that employment has increased by 919,800 or 8.1 per cent over the period at a rate of 1.6 per cent per annum, which is the same as the rate of growth over the last decade. Employment growth has been strong over the last year alone, increasing by 346,700 (or 2.9 per cent) to stand at 12,301,200 in October 2017.

A number of services industries have made large contributions to employment growth over the five years to August 2017 , led by the Health Care and Social Assistance industry (up by 21.1%), followed by the Construction industry (up by 19%), the Accommodation and Food Services industry (up by 16.2%) and the Education and Training industry (up by 12.3%). By contrast, the largest falls in employment have been in the Manufacturing industry (down by 5.7%) and the Mining industry (down by 19.4%).

Written by: Sylvia Leigh – Director of Astrum Recruitment