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SEEK employment data published

According to the SEEK Employment report published in June, job ads have dropped by 17.9% when compared to the same time last year. Conversely, the average number of applicants per job has increased by 59.3% compared to the same time last year. Much of this increase in applications is due to increased competition in the ICT and Consultancy and Strategy industries.

Ad volumes in Victoria have fallen 24.1% compared to the same time last year.

While these comparisons sound dramatic, the data suggests much more stability when comparing these stats to the previous month, with job ads dropping by just 0.6% and applications increasing by just 0.3%.

Further, applications per job ad fell in Victoria (-2.9%), Western Australia (-2.9%) and Tasmania (-2.4%) but rose in all other states and territories. For Victoria, this is the first time in over two years applications per job ad have declined.

June also saw isignificant growth in hiring activity in Education & Training, with job ads increasing by 29.6%.

Table 1: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing May 2024 to May 2023 (y/y)

Figure 1: Major state job ad trends: May 2020 to May 2024

Illegal job ads under the microscope

According to the Staffiing Industry Analysts, the Fair Work Ombudsman is cracking down on job advertisements with payrates below the legal minimum. More than more than $89,000 in fines and 151 infringement notices have been issued since March 2023.

Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said in a press release that the regulator would write to major online job websites to make clear both the Ombudsman and the public expect them to play their part in stamping out unlawful ads and to seek their cooperation with the Ombudsman’s compliance activities.

“Dodgy job ads are unlawful, and some of them are scams. We want to stop dodgy ads before they appear,” Booth said. “We are calling on all job websites to maximise awareness to employers, recruiters, and the public about the importance of advertising legal minimum wages.”

Booth said the regulator took dodgy job ads seriously, including because they often deliberately targeted vulnerable people, such as migrants.

Cautious response to Government caps on international student enrolment

Australia’s Labor government has proposed a legislative package that will cap the number of international students seeking to pursue a tertiary education in the country’s higher education sector according to University World News.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government will limit how many international students can be enrolled by each university based on a formula, including how much housing they build.

Under the plan, there would be a pause on applications for registration from new international education providers and of new courses from existing providers for periods of up to 12 months.

The government will be able to set limits on enrolments at a provider level with effect from 1 January 2025.

High schools and postgraduate research enrolments are exempt from the caps.

The peak body for the tertiary sector, Universities Australia, has said that it would work closely with the government to ensure no harm is done.

Similarly cautious reaction came from the alliance of eight leading universities, the Group of Eight (Go8). Chief Executive of the Go8, Vicki Thomson, told The Guardian that any mix of policy settings must be considered, and nuanced.

According to the country’s public broadcaster, the ABC, across all Australian universities, the number of international students has increased nearly 2.5 times since 2005, with Chinese students increasing more than threefold.

More stability on the horizon for talent teams

Redundancies among talent acquisition teams are slowing, according to data from 233 talent teams published by the Australasian Talent Conference’s latest report, with only 13% of talent teams saying they still expect future cuts of any kind.

ATC’s report found that aside from those expecting future cuts, 59% of talent teams plan to hold headcount at their current levels and 28% expect growth.

The report, suggests that half of all talent teams say they cannot deliver critical talent outcomes for their businesses due to budget restrictions and only 30% of talent teams rated themselves seven or more out of 10 in their ability to deliver the talent required.

Analysing responses from employers on their views on talent advisory and internal mobility functions, the report found:

43 companies had a fully operational talent advisory service.
10 companies had talent advisory integrated with workforce planning.
118 companies are currently developing their talent advisory service.
38 companies are at conception stage on talent advisory; and
24 companies were non-committal on the value of talent advisory services.

Further, only 2% of talent teams had a fully automated and functioning internal mobility system, while a further 23% said their team was closely involved in the management of internal mobility and succession planning.

This lack of capability in internal mobility and talent advisory means organisations are missing opportunities for retention and engagement because they are overlooking internal candidates and hiring externally. This results in increased time-to-fill, higher costs, and higher salary expectations, the report concluded.

Are you ready for Casual Conversion changes?

From August this year, new legislation will allow casual employees who believe they are no longer casual to request permanent employment.

Previously, the casual conversion process was reliant on the employer checking employment status and offering conversion accordingly. From August, the onus with rest with employees to notify their employers that they no longer meet the definition of a casual and therefore should be permanent employees.

According to HRMonline, this shift has the potential to eliminate much of the busywork involved in checking on the length and status of employment and offering conversion to employees who may not wish to become permanent. The changes reflect the reality that many workers, particularly in sectors like retail and hospitality, are casual by choice and do not wish to lose the casual loading or flexibility this status gives them.

With that said, the upcoming legislation also has measures in place to allow workers who do wish to convert to permanent status to do so and gain protections such as paid leave, notice of termination and redundancy pay.

This is likely to have most impact in industries such as aged care, community services, childcare and labour hire companies, where work tends to be predictable, but where it has traditionally been challenging for some workers to convert to permanent status.

Grounds for refusing a casual conversion request:

Under the new employee choice framework, employers can reject a request if the employee still fits the new definition of a casual employee. Employers will also retain the ability to reject a request based on fair and reasonable operational grounds.

These grounds are situations such as where converting a casual employee to a permanent status would cause significant disruption to the business operations or substantial changes would be required to how the employer’s work is organised. Even a regular pattern of hours does not necessarily constitute an entitlement to permanent employment.

For instance, if the work is highly weather-dependent or heavily influenced by varying customer demand, employers may argue that maintaining a casual, flexible workforce is essential. Industries such as quarrying, where operations can be halted due to weather, or retail, where the volume of work varies greatly, are typical examples of where these grounds might apply.

An employer can also reject a conversion request on the grounds that there is an absence of a firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite (i.e. they still fall within the new definition of a casual employee).

Filed under: News

Date published: 16/07/2024

Author: Mirleen Chinnery