Ahead of the employment figures due from Australia today (preview here and Adam’s here), a report in the Australian Financial Review on a recruitment firm survey which “found that after 14 quarters of deterioration, Australian hiring expectations have improved, with 23.4 per cent of businesses set to take on more staff next quarter – the first improvement since the September quarter of 2010″
- cautious optimism amongst employers
- organisations in Australia are continuing to focus on business transformation and reskilling their workforces
- professional services the strongest employment outlook for the first quarter of 2014, followed by technology
- Also, the intention to decrease current head counts has dropped 2.6 percentage points to 11.2%
- Employment expectations in the resources and mining sector are up in both Western Australia and in Queensland, despite the investment phase of the mining boom coming to an end
The article goes on, with some sanguine views:
- JPMorgan chief economist Stephen Walters believes that employment conditions are set to worsen
- Thinks the jobless rate will be higher this year (JPMorgan forecasts unemployment will reach 6.5% by mid-year)
- Says – “We’ve seen business confidence really slump again after the post-election bounce, so business is still in quite a cautious mood … “Employment growth is just unlikely to be exceeding population growth in any sustained way.”
Australian Financial Review (gated): More hiring, less firing likely in 2014: report
