The Australian manufacturing and retail industries are holding back the national employment market, according to an employment survey released today.
The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which examined the overall hiring intentions in Australia for the next three months, flagged the manufacturing and retail sectors as industries contributing to the lag in hiring sediment.
Of the 2,200 employer’s surveyed, 26 per cent indicated that their companies expect to increase hiring – a drop of three per cent from the last quarter.
The survey also revealed that the number of companies planning to decrease hiring has risen to nine per cent, a three per cent increase from last quarter’s six per cent.
Australia’s Net Employment Outlook* has declined slightly quarter-over-quarter and by a more moderate margin year-over-year, but still stands at +19%.
ManpowerGroup Australia & New Zealand managing director, Lincoln Crawley said confidence seen in the early stages of economic recovery have reverted to uneasiness for employers in some sectors, including manufacturing, retail and public administration.
Speculation about rising interest rate fears due to the strong dollar has dampened consumer spending and is putting pressure on the manufacturing and retail sectors, Crawley said.
The flow on effect will see tightening of the job market in these sectors as well, he said.
Positive hiring intentions has been recorded for the mining an construction, services, transport, and finance, insurance and real estate sectors, the survey revealed.
*The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.
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