THE Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released earlier this month indicates the employment prospects for job seekers in the manufacturing sector may well be softer than they have been for the past two years as business leaders hire less new staff.
The survey, which was part of a broader survey of 2,658 employers across Australia, revealed that the majority of employers in this sector are intending to hold the line on their staff levels for the next quarter.
The levels of demand are considerably lower than the past 24 months, and in fact have dropped back to the same lower levels reported at the end of 2006.
The manufacturing sector’s employment market shows a noticeable softening in hiring intentions in the July — September quarter of 2008, with a Net Employment Outlook of +17%, a considerable decline of 11 percentage points compared to the last quarter (+28%).
According to Stephen Hinch, General Manager Marketing & Communications, Manpower, Australia and New Zealand, the considerable softening in intention to hire new staff may not signal a slowdown in net growth.
“The softening in hiring intentions may well be indicating a decline in pent up demand that was created by internal mobility together with supply shortages”.
“This softer demand may also be an early indicator of the disaggregation of the labour markets as some industries continue to grow from strength to strength while others such as Finance as well as Wholesale & Retail begin to tighten and perhaps shrink as consumer confidence tightens.
“Business leaders must continue to rethink their strategies not only to attract but more importantly to retain the right talent, as staff that you lose today may well need replacing tomorrow.” Hinch said.
“There has been a general even spread of growth across all industries over the past few years only constrained by labour supply, but as the economy tends to shift we may well see a disaggregation where some industries such as Wholesale & Retail contract while other industries continue to grow.
“The net result of this disaggregation could see as many as 150,000 people losing their jobs over the next 12 to 18 months, but only a slight upswing in unemployment as those with transferable skills can move to the growth sector, ” he added.