Employment update April 30th 2010

There have been reports in the media about the high number of job vacancies being advertised, linking this to a much improved job market.

This is true compared to the lows seen in the middle of 2009 but very far from the truth when comparing it to the highs of 2007.

Let's put it all into perspective.  In 2007, SEEK.co.nz had over 22,000 job listings per month and TradmeJobs around 10,000.  In writing this article, SEEK has 12,262 job vacancies and TrademeJobs 7,242.
So while SEEK has this month reported an increase in job vacancies of 32.5% as compared to July 2009, we are still a far cry from where the job market was two years ago.

The good news is that the market is recovering but I would not count my chickens just yet.  Let's hope that the general positivity recorded in the economy continues, retail sales continue to improve and manufacturing orders continue to increase.  Hopefully the recent negative news about Greece will not impact the European and American markets too much and we can get back into our recovery and start to employ more people rather than just replacing staff who leave.

It is worth noting that the AC Nielsen statistics for Jobsites shows that record numbers of jobseekers have been visiting jobsites in March 2010.  SEEK had 940,309 unique visitors while TrademeJobs had 746,122.  Those are staggering numbers when you consider that in September 2007, in the middle of the job market boom, SEEK was congratulating itself for getting more than 350,000 unique visitors.
With job numbers relatively low and unemployment high, we are faced with employers having to cope with a huge number of job applicants.  But more importantly, the numbers show that many people who are currently in employment are now looking for work when previously they may not have been. 
It's time for employers took a long hard look at their staff retention programs.

/employers/articles/the-importance-of-a-staff-retention-program

Simon Oldham
Sales & Marketing Manager
QJumpers