New year job seekers should target the Services and Mining & Construction industry sectors, where employer optimism for the first quarter of 2011 is strong, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released today.
Elsewhere, optimism among employers in the Finance, Insurance & Real Estate sector remains positive, but is expected to take a moderate dip in the first three months of the year.
The survey of more than 2,200 Australian employers indicates hiring for the first quarter of 2011 will remain steady overall, with the Mining & Construction, Services and Public Administration sectors buoying the rest of the employment market.
The seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook is at +21%, a one percentage point increase from the last quarter’s seasonally adjusted outlook and a two-point increase from a year ago. The number of employers planning to increase hiring has increased to 28 per cent (up from 27 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010), while the number of employers planning to decrease headcount remains steady, at 7 per cent.
Employers in the Services sector are showing the highest employment optimism for the first quarter of 2011, at +28% (up from+ 27% in Q4 2010).
“The Services sector is Australia’s quiet achiever. It’s the only sector where employer hiring expectations continued to increase through 2010, doing so consistently and without the fluctuations we’ve seen in many other sectors,” said Lincoln Crawley, Managing Director, Manpower Australia & New Zealand.
Similarly, says Mr Crawley, the Mining & Construction sector has remained strong throughout the year, and will only continue its hiring surge in 2011.
“We’ve heard a lot from Mining & Construction sector employers about skills shortages and these figures now serve to add more urgency to the need for a solution,” said Crawley.
“Organisations need to prioritise attraction and retention strategies as the war for talent will be heating up.”