Melbourne market update

By Right Resumesin
Melbourne market update

We recently asked Aaron Jones, Director at Jones Talent ID about the employment market in Melbourne and these are the key take-outs.

  • The COVID 19 effect on the employment market was the most sudden he has experienced. He has seen a few shocks to the market over the last 27 years but this almost instant change really rocked confidence.
  • JobKeeper reversed some redundancy decisions but has caused uncertainty in the market with its continuation in October reducing availability and benefit level – should you look for a new job with higher reward or remain loyal, etc?
  • Some sectors were hit very hard while others are almost unaffected – Jones Talent ID works a lot with advisory firms and value-added advice was hit hard. Hospitality, tourism, the arts and retail (especially physical) are examples of other sectors that have been hard hit and they are having to innovate to off-set the downturn.
  • Temporary vacancies have increased as employers need work done but don’t have the confidence to hire permanently. Innovation is also in focus as businesses look for different ways of doing things – this will hopefully create new jobs in the longer term.
  • Working practices have changed with work-from-home becoming a norm and then starting to innovate itself, for example collaboration changing, tools being improved and meetings becoming more focussed.
  • Work-from-home will become a bigger part of the future. Many people are enjoying the commute time as leisure and family time and are finding out a lot more about what their kids are learning at school!
  • Mental health needs to be top of the agenda, particularly in light of the second set of restrictions – business has been improving in this area and this might be the catalyst for further improvement.
  • Online interviewing and onboarding are becoming more and more effective and the “Zoom” interviewing is likely to become an ongoing part of many hiring processes.

Having been through many difficult job markets, Aaron did feel confident unemployment would fall back to trend but timing is difficult to predict and some jobs will have changed when we pick up again.