The pace of the jobs market in 2023

Paul O’Loughlin

The global jobs market is experiencing unprecedented demand, which given current global key economic indicators is quite surprising! Here in Australia, we have an unemployment rate of 3.5% that is at an all time low, and job creation appears to be accelerating. On one hand this is phenomenal, on the other however is the issue of “where are we going to find the talent to fill all these new vacancies?”

I appreciate that the jobs demand has been predicated by the epidemic and lockdowns, and employers are now playing catch up, but the level of spending on infrastructure, telecommunications, healthcare, aviation, mining, renewables, agriculture, tourism etc are all placing added pressure and demand on a finite skills base. The appetite for talent both here and overseas is accelerating. The Australian Government has just announced that it is increasing the immigration rate beyond pre-covid levels in order to combat the skills shortage. This will only go to placing undue pressure on what is already “fractured” housing, education, and healthcare sectors. It doesn’t “warrant thinking about”, but I am being facetious!

With so much global uncertainty created by the situation in Ukraine, with the rise in the cost of energy, spiralling interest rates, the overall cost of living, pressures on the global financial markets, you would think global economies would be on the decline. They are not. We are witnessing steady rates of GDP growth occurring all around the world, albeit less than the heady pre-covid era, but economies are expanding.

For what we think is serendipitous could in fact be perilous, so it is worth contemplating that in these uncertain times we might need to get our deck chairs in order.

There has been no time in history where we have witnessed a greater need to find talent. As a hiring organisation, if you are not recruiting in a strategic way utilising a diversified number of recruitment protocols, then in all likelihood you will be left behind. I am hearing it constantly from our recruitment agency partners that they have had to adopt innovative ways to source talent. Traditional recruitment methodologies have become parse, and ai is being introduced at breakneck speed to maintain a competitive edge in sourcing the “right” human capital.

Being able to secure good people is more critical and challenging than it has ever been before!

Ubidy | Global Talent on Demand