Australia’s Human Resources profession continues to experience historically high levels of demand, although we are evidencing the national trend starting to soften.
The start of 2023 saw a mountainous surge in demand for HR professionals and The Next Step’s HR Job Opportunities National Index peaked at 181.9 in February. Since that seasonal spike, demand has settled back to the healthy circa 150 levels. To put this into context, at no stage in the 12 months prior to the pandemic period did the National Index exceed 118.7 (and for the most part it bumped around in the 100 +/-10 range).
Permanent and contract HR job opportunities are both tracking strongly. In past months, there has definitely been a resurgence in interest for on-demand contract and interim HR talent support, particularly in areas of specialised expertise such as Workplace Relations and Remuneration. Contract and interim roles are now almost 25% of all opportunities presented to the market.
After peaking in February, HR opportunities have returned close to where they were 2-years ago.*
Like all markets, Queensland experienced high demand in early 2023, but unlike some regions, it has sustained this momentum throughout the year. Whether driven by increased demand, a shortage of talent, or a combination of both, opportunities in Queensland now constitute 21.7% of the national market, surpassing Victoria's 20.8%.
A significant proportion of HR job opportunities (19.7%) can currently be found within Australia’s public sector.
The percentage of HR job opportunities within Health Care & Social Assistance has contracted heavily in the last two quarters. On the flipside, Mining and Public Administration now hold a larger proportion of current demand for HR professionals.
Most job opportunities within Human Resources are for generalist/consultant roles. While there was strong demand for these professionals in 2021 and 2022, it has notably decreased since peaking at an all-time high in February 2023 (down -16.8% in the past quarter). The softening of such a dominant part of the HR job market has had knock-on effects reflected in the regional and sector based Job Indexes.
Meanwhile, the workplace Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) job market has maintained its incredibly strong demand over the past 2 years.
Learning and Development job opportunities have remained stable and sit at historically high levels of demand.
Author: Craig Mason Date published : 5/09/2023
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