About two years ago I wrote a post about job availability here and in the UK. You can read it if you want, it’s called Finding a Job in Australia Compared with the UK. But for those of you who’d rather not go back and read an old post, here’s the gist of it.
I explained that in 2007, when we first arrived in Australia, the place was booming! Almost all tradies were busy, the difficulty was getting one to turn up, they had so much choice.
But by 2010, things had definitely slowed down, although Australia was not exactly suffering the full effects of the Global Financial Crisis.
I then looked at the number of vacancies being advertised by the top three employment agencies online in both the UK and Australia, and came up with the following table…
There were a few explanatory notes with those tables which I wont run past you again, but this my conclusion at the time.
I felt that the two best websites were Reed in the UK and Seek in Australia for a direct comparison between our two countries. It was also pretty obvious at the time that Australia, with about one third the population of the UK, had a lot more job vacancies per capita than in the UK.
Two years on, the update?
I’ve not heard anybody mention the word “boom” here in Queensland for a very long time, and I’m not sure the rest of Australia is doing much better either. Western Australia was supposed to be booming, but I’m really not sure that is still the case.
Certainly some (often remote) mining towns scattered variously around the country are booming, but that’s about it.
Here are the latest (June 2012) unemployment percentages, state-by-state, as provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics…
Back in the UK, although unemployment fell by 51,000 in the three months to April 2012, the jobless rate is still 8.2% according to this report by the BBC.
Unemployment then is creeping down in the UK, whilst here in Australia it has gone up slightly over the last quarter.
So I decided to do some more research on job vacancies in the UK and Australia, here’s what I got…
Latest job vacancies 2012
The Manufacturing and Executive jobs category seems to have disappeared, so I’ve replaced it with Engineering, but that’s just for interest. For comparisons sake, we’ll just look at the other four categories.
I’ve also ignored Monster and Careerone figures this year as their websites don’t easily give running totals.
- Jobsite have 86% more vacancies today in the UK than they had two years ago.
- Mycareer has 41% fewer vacancies in Australia today as they had two years ago.
But the big guns this year still appear to be Reed and Seek…
- Reed has 21% more vacancies today in the UK than they did two years ago.
- Seek have 19% fewer vacancies today in Australia than they did two years ago.
- But Seek still have 5.3% more vacancies here in Australia than Reed does in the UK.
So, evidence suggests that although the unemployment and job vacancies situation in the UK is improving whilst getting slightly worse here in Australia, Australia still has way more jobs available per capita than the UK.
Don’t forget, those figures above ignore the Engineering category, but…
- Seek do have 17% more Engineering vacancies in Australia for our 20 million population than Reed has in the UK for over 60 million.
Where are all the jobs in Australia?
According to Reed, here are the top five locations for the five job categories we’ve looked at above…
Australia then, still appears to be a better bet for jobseekers compared with the UK. Most vacancies here in Australia, as you would expect, are in Sydney, followed by Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth then Adelaide.
Unless you’re in engineering, in which case “Go West!”
Happy job hunting!
My thanks to Reed, Seek, Jobsite and Mycareer for giving me the tools to do this research.
I know this is an old post now, but for anyone who stumbles upon it as I did you need to be aware that a lot of jobs on Seek, and I mean a lot, are not real jobs. They’re just recruiters fishing for candidates to add to their database. How do I know? Quite a few friends in recruitment who admit this is one of their KPIs. They advertise stock ads to collect CVs. And also personally applying for more than 100 jobs in the last few months for a single response (and that wasn’t a recruiter, it was directly with the employer). In short, raw job ad numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Well no I wasn’t aware of that and it is good information to have. Thanks for providing this information Ian, it is helpful and who knows, some people might still be reading this even though this is now quite old.
I want to the job in Australia bar ya restoran
One thing I always find interesting is that the numbers of jobs aren’t vastly different in a lot of cases – in my field, IT and Telecoms, according to this article I’d have more choice in Australia.
But then, you think about the amount of people each respective country has. The UK’s 64 million vs Australia’s 23 million – you’d think there would be much less in Australia in the way of jobs, simply because they don’t need as much.
Well, the experiment I’ve done here is interesting but it’s hardly scientific. It does overwhelmingly suggest though that there are more vacancies here in Australia per capita than there are in the UK.
So hopefully people coming here will find it easier to get a job, but that’s all theory. The reality is actually getting a job when you get here and I can understand anyone making the move feeling a little anxious about that.
Ultimately, yes, I think there are more opportunities here, but you still got to grab hold of one and make it your own.
is there labouring asbestes operative mining job over there i wud love to get out this reccession and we are in hardest hit the north east time spread my wing m8
Not sure Stephen, although I do know we have asbestos that still needs cleaning up in certain places. Whether it is on the list or not, or if you could get a sponsorship, I really don’t know.
Does anybody else know?
hiya what about me im 40 but cant get manual work here in the uk imine worker over there thanxs
Bob, It would be very interesting to look at the construction sector as this would give a clear indication of where the country is going.
I’ve been working in the construction industry in the UK since the late 80’s and have experienced two crippling recessions in that time.
The construction Industry is always the first hit, and the longest to recover, as if there is any uncertainty in the economy, the first thing that is cut are new buildings, premises, houses etc.
My EOI has been submitted and I’m looking very closely at this sector (I’m a Civil Engineer) and hoping that things don’t drop too badly in Oz in the near future, saying that, it cant be as bad as the UK, where construction has just had another sharp drop in output.
One thing that makes me think that there may be a drop in the near future in Oz is the fact that interest rates are dropping, no doubt trying to boost the housing market; is this a warning sign?
Good point and yes, maybe it is a warning sign, there are quite a few warning signs around in Australia at the moment. But so far, none of them have developed into a crisis, yet.
I keep saying time will tell, but it hasn’t so far, things just keep on ticking over. The economy is not great, but it hasn’t fallen apart either.
This is a note to teenagers really who are looking for their first job. In our experience, it’s far easier for young people to get their first part time job in WA than it is in the UK at the moment. It has become very hard over the last few years in the UK for 2 reasons. Firstly, there are fewer suitable jobs. Lots of local newspapers have shut down, as have plenty of pubs and cafes. Secondly, teenagers are up against more competition for the jobs. Lots of adults are struggling to make ends meet. Adults with full time jobs are taking on extra part-time jobs like paper rounds and bar work to make ends meet. So for those with no previous work experience or qualifications, WA seems to have far more on offer than the UK.
Good point Sue. A few of my friends have teenage kids who have been looking for work, and they’ve pretty much all found some. Working the bar at the local club, working in the bakers, helping out at the stables; it does seem easier than it currently is for similar aged kids back in the UK right now.