SEEK reveals the best time to search for a job in Australia

If you have been struggling on the job hunt, your luck may be about to turn around. The best time to land a job in Australia has been revealed.

Dust off your CV and update your LinkedIn photo because job opportunities are about to spike.

Analysis of SEEK data by recruitment firm Robert Walters revealed typically more jobs were advertised in July than any other month of the year.

Between 2008 and 2018, an average of 106,609 jobs were listed in the first month of the new financial year — about 600 more than in October, which typically offered the least new listings.

Get ready to amp up your job search. Picture: iStock

Robert Walters manager of accounting and finance Charlie Pearson said the new financial

year was a good time to look for a job in most industries as new budgets allowed hiring activity delayed during the previous financial year to move forward.

Employability specialist Rebecca Fraser said companies often postponed hiring or replacing staff at the end of a financial year to improve their business results and allow them to transfer recruitment costs to the next year.

“As soon as the reporting hits, they will up their search for filling empty roles,” she said.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics figures revealed the largest month-on-month jump in employed Australians in the past 12 months was in August (up by 29,000 people) — soon after hiring processes ended for July job openings.

Employability expert Rebecca Fraser. Picture: Paul Loughnan

The trend was the same for the previous 12 months, with its August figures up by 27,100 people.

Mr Pearson said the job spike may also be caused by workers resigning mid-year after taking stock of their financial situation at tax time.

“Looking for a fresh start with the prospect of an increased salary is very tempting to workers who have been unhappy in their current role,” he said.

“The end of the financial year is also when many projects come to an end (so) those in contract roles naturally begin to look for new opportunities.”

Alex Hattingh, chief people officer at software company Employment Hero, said people tended to quit after bonuses had been paid at the end of the financial year, too.

“You also see a spike in people quitting following annual salary reviews, if they are unhappy with their new salary,” she said.

In general, workers were changing jobs more frequently now than in the past.

A recent Twitter poll of more than 2500 people by SEEK revealed although most hoped to spend at least five years with their current employer, 26 per cent intended to leave within six months.

Another 25 per cent planned to stick with their employer for one to two years.

Employment Hero chief people officer Alex Hattingh. Source: Supplied.

Younger workers typically changed job most frequently, with The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2019 revealing 63 per cent of Generation Z Australians and 50 per cent of Millennials expected to leave their current employer within two years.

Mr Pearson said workers planning to look for a new job in the coming months should try not to burn bridges with their current employer.

“Your manager should be the first person to know (that you have landed a new job),” he said.

“When you do resign, be as respectful as possible and make sure you do it in person.

“It is also important to work hard right up until the day you leave — just because you’ve quit, it doesn’t mean you should begin to slack.

“You never know when you might want to be rehired by your former employer, or when you might need to contact an old manager or colleague for their help in the future.”

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