Market update: What does it mean to me?
Thanks largely to Australia’s strict banking regulations; the Australian market economy is in remarkably good condition especially given the instability of the global markets in recent weeks. We are still enjoying one of the lowest unemployment levels of the last three decades with the majority of Australian businesses having healthy balance sheets backed by solid profits. Our finance institutions also don’t have the heavy leveraging experienced by many of the international banking community.
Gerry Harvey, from Harvey Norman fame, is on record as stating that he doesn’t believe Australia is going into recession. Despite the doom and gloom scenarios projected in much of the media, many business and academic commentators tend to agree to expect continued GDP growth. Few however being prepared to nominate a percentage.
We are likely to see significant sector-specific fluctuations in employment levels but given the overall demand, redundant personnel should be readily absorbed by more buoyant sectors. The employment market is therefore expected to stay relatively stable in the near future. In the end, however, the state of the Australian employment market will be determined by market psychology and consumer confidence. The government’s $10.4B cash injection should go a long way to bolstering this. There is also a strong likelihood that we may see increased demand for freelance contract personnel as corporations, seeking to gain greater flexibility over their cost base, increase their contractor to FTE headcount. In fact, Gary Wright, CEO of UK based BISS Research, argues that skill shortages could actually impede the recover “with a dearth of experienced employees in the finance sector”. He argues that “enormous pressures are put on too few knowledgeable senior people to ensure operational efficiency”. This all means continued, and growing, demand for quality contract freelance specialists of all kinds.
If you have suggestions or want to subscribe to our newsletter, please leave your message here:
This article was published in the Zealancer-News 56.