Recent Council recruitment trends

Looking at the big picture of recruitment advertising occasionally uncovers interesting trends.
Analysis of recruitment advertising of Australian councils by job type over the last 12 months, reveals some surprises. Councils are known to be very stable employers with low levels of attrition typically less than 10% per year on average vs more than 20% per year in the private sector. As well, many unique skillsets are sought by Councils and these can cover over 200 job categories, almost half of which are unique to the sector.

Patterns of Council recruitment

CouncilJobs is known for its depth of candidates in the traditionally unique roles of Engineering, Planning, Community Services, Environment and Executive Management. These are the job categories that advertisers know they can particularly rely on CouncilJobs to be able to tap into for highly experienced candidates. In our experience and operating for almost 20 years, our subscriber profile mirrors what Advertisers are looking for.

Here’s where it gets interesting lately;


(The above chart shows recruitment patterns by Job categories – blue is the share of jobs advertised over the last 12 months vs red which is the share of jobs advertised more recently over the past 3 months vs the green which is the share of CouncilJobs Subscribers in each category. Normally all these 3 lines align.)

What can we conclude from all this?
Above average rates of recruitment of HR, Building and Procurement roles suggest that councils may be gearing up for major project activity.
Since May this year, CouncilJobs has seen a marked jump in recruitment activity. Overall recruitment advertising is up more than 30% per month over the previous 12 months as recruiters rush to fill key roles, many of which have been on hold for over 12 months due to factors like hiring freezes, reorganisations, etc.
This demand has seen higher than usual activity in lead-indicator roles including HR, Building and Procurement, suggesting that there may be further growth in councils’ recruitment overall in coming months.

Happy job hunting

CJ

Comments

  1. yogesh kumar28 December 2018 at 22:03

    This is an awesome post. Really very informative and creative contents. This concept is a good way to enhance knowledge. I like it and help me to development very well. Thank you for this brief explanation and very nice information. Well, got good knowledge.
    WordPress website development Chennai

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's a hiring frenzy at Councils

Image
Hiring Frenzy Underway in Australian Councils In 2018, the urgent recruitment drive that started in July 2017 by Australian and New Zealand Councils, has continued. The backlog in unfilled positions in NSW is understandable, given the end of the 12 month (and longer in many cases) hiring freeze caused by the forced amalgamations of councils. Yet the current demand for skilled professionals is nationwide and reflects the infrastructure development focus of most councils. We’re also seeing new interest from across the Tasman from New Zealand councils seeking to fill positions with the best talent they can find and help people make the move. The roles in highest demand across the board now are; Planners – to deal with unprecedented housing and commercial construction ratesEngineers – to manage existing ageing infrastructure and bring new projects to lifeEnvironmental experts, from waste and sustainability to water and drainage to manage the growth in population associat…
Read more

Earn while you learn - Councils & the Graduate Roadmap

Image
Earn while you learn - Councils and the Graduate Roadmap
Coming out of university and into the workforce can be a challenging time. To help you get a better idea of the process of graduate recruitment and why you should consider taking on a local government role, we sat down with graduate engineers (or soon to be) Lachlan Neal and Avinash (Avi) Singh from UTS and UNSW respectively, both currently employed with the City of Ryde in suburban Sydney.
In creating pathways for students to embark on fulfilling engineering careers, councils are seeking to give graduates a taste of local government work; while taking the opportunity to assess the suitability of the graduate to the role they’ve undertaken.
The program allows councils to ‘try before you buy’. If they’re impressed by the work of the student, they may be invited onto the next step of the pathway - first into paid part time work while they complete their studies, then into full time work as a graduate.
Speeding Past Roadmap Checkpoin…
Read more

4 Tips for a successful Job Application

Image
We’re often asked by new subscribers if we have any inside info on how to get a job in council. So, this post has some suggestions based on what we’ve learned from dealing with CouncilJobs advertisers and subscribers for almost 20 years.
1.You get one chance to make a good first impression and that first opportunity is always your written application. To improve applicant suitability and save recruitment time, many councils have moved to a full online application process via an online ‘Portal’, where applicants respond to a template of questions and input fields with information specific to the job being recruited and it may seem that this strict format disadvantages applicants. Some councils, particularly smaller and regional ones, still invite applicants to submit their resume along with a cover letter either by email or post. Either way, these principles apply to both processes and you must think about how you will make your skills and experience stand out as being a good fit for co…
Read more