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A slight rise in unemployment and fewer accounting job ads last month do not signal an end to the talent drought, says CPA Australia.
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‘Little to celebrate’ in labour market data
16 September 2022
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10 minute read
The jobs market remains the biggest challenge for businesses despite a slight rise in the August unemployment rate, CPA Australia said.
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Small and medium-sized businesses were still struggling to attract or retain talented staff, business policy adviser Gavan Ord said, as ABS figures showed a small uptick in the unemployment rate to 3.5 per cent.
The rise, the first since October 2021, coincided with an increase in the participation rate, a rise in the number of people with multiple jobs and slower growth in accounting job vacancies on SEEK last month.
The participation rate — one focus of the recent Jobs and Skills Summit — increased to 66.6 per cent while ABS data from earlier this week showed 6.5 per cent of workers, around 900,000 people, now work more than one job.
At the same time, SEEK figures for August showed accounting job ads rising 1.4 per cent month-on-month, a slowdown from a 4.0 per cent increase in July.
But Mr Ord said CPA Australia members expected staff recruitment to be the main problem for some time.
“The tight job market continues to be an issue for businesses looking to fill vacancies and hold on to talented employees,” said Mr Ord, and it added to a catalogue of concerns.
“A CPA Australia survey of more than 1,000 people found almost half thought skills shortages would be the biggest issue facing businesses over the next year.
“Another 35 per cent said rising costs were their primary concern. One in 10 were concerned about cash flow problems and difficulties accessing finance, while 9 per cent nominated wage rises as a key challenge.
“Our members are telling us there is pressure on all sides for businesses.”
The accounting body had called for government to implement a financial support program for small and medium-sized businesses.
“We encourage the federal government to provide targeted assistance to small and medium businesses and encourage them to seek advice,” said Mr Ord.
“The last two years have been tough on many businesses, and while the challenges may be different, the tough times roll on.”
The ABS said the unemployment rate had returned to the June level figure but the participation rate was now 0.7 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels and was higher for both men and women.
The latest jobs data from SEEK showed overall job ads declined 0.6 per cent in August from July, but remain 30.9 per cent higher year-on-year. Bucking the trend, job ads increased 3.7 per cent in Victoria and continued to grow for accounting.
“There has been a flattening of the curve for both job ads and applications over the past quarter,” said SEEK ANZ managing director Kendra Banks.
“As job ads ease away from record-high levels, candidate applications are spread less thinly across the great variety in the market, leading to incremental increases in applications per job ad.
“Job ads in all states and territories are tracking ahead compared to August 2019, and should unemployment remain at record-level lows as forecast, we can expect this to be the case for some time.”
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