Employers reluctant to give jobseekers what they want most: WFH

Seek has revealed the number one thing Australian jobseekers are searching for – while job ads suggest employers are reluctant to give it.

You would think most Australians heading to employment website Seek would type an occupation in the search bar, but it turns out priorities have changed.

“Work from home” is now the top keyword searched on the site, with many jobseekers choosing to search it over any job title or industry.

“Instead of just searching for, you know people might be looking for a software programming job, instead of putting those words into the keyword search they’re putting work from home,” Seek senior economist Matt Cowgill told news.com.au.

“People are telling us as well when we ask them that they are likely to resign and look for a different job if work from home isn’t offered.”

In a survey done by the company in May, 61 per cent of jobseekers said this.

Jobs ads on Seek over time that included ‘work from home’.

But while the demand for remote working is clear, it is not reflected in the number of employers actually including “work from home” in their job ads – less than 5 per cent in fact do so.

“We have seen a significant rise in the proportion of jobs ads that say that people are able to work from home but it’s still perhaps surprisingly small overall,” Mr Cowgill said.

“We’re only seeing approximately 5 per cent of job ads on our platform explicitly mentioning those words and phrases – work from home, WFH, that type of thing.”

Jobseekers can still choose to search by industry using the classification drop down if they put WFH in the search bar.

Mr Cowgill expects there would be more employers willing to offer flexibility but have not explicitly stated it in their job ad.

It was also noted that not all job ads on the site could offer remote working due to the nature of the work.

He said the mention of work from home in job ads is predominantly for the jobs you would expect – public service roles and white-collar professions.

Employers desperate for workers

It comes at a time where employers are struggling to find workers.

Job ad numbers on Seek have been at record highs for eight out of the past 12 months, while applications per job ad are at the lowest observed level in the last decade – consistent with the current low unemployment rate.

A McDonald’s store in Sydney recently offered a $1000 sign-on bonus to lure in staff – even for those that had never had a job before.

Across the country, the fast-food company is seeking to fill more than 8000 jobs.

Meanwhile burger chain Grill’d is currently offering $10,000 for assistant managers to sign up at multiple Melbourne restaurants.

Australian employers, including McDonald’s, are offering sign-on bonuses to lure in new workers. Picture: NCA NewsWire/James Gourley

Speaking at a presentation last week, Seek managing director Kendra Banks said employers were strongly advised to explain in their ads what made a job stand out from the rest, whether that was salary, flexibility or career development.

She said if a job was offering a salary above average, it should be listed to attract candidates, but the majority of employers were still choosing not to allow the salary bracket to be publicly visible.

This is despite all job ads requiring a salary bracket when submitted to the site to be sorted.

Ms Banks said some employers were worried current employees would find out they were offering better pay to a new hire and other times it was unintentional.

“It’s not always intentional, maybe they’re using a template from three years ago for that ad,” she said, explaining that with staff shortages, companies often had limited time to spend on recruiting.

She said quite often employers would edit their ad to include a salary if it didn’t go well initially.

Effect of economic uncertainty on job market

There are plenty of jobs available in Australia, with record numbers of workers choosing to resign in search of greener pastures – but is the tide about to turn?

Australia’s inflation rate has hit 6.1 per cent, sending the cost of living skyrocketing, and rising interest rates, brought in to try to tame the rate of inflation is putting extra pressure on mortgage holders.

Almost 10 per cent of the Australian workforce or 1.3 million people quit their jobs in the 12 months to February. It was the biggest number since 2012. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Luis Enrique Ascui

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned he will be delivering a “confronting” economic statement to parliament this week.

Dr Geni Dechter, an expert in labour economics and a senior lecturer at UNSW, explained as economic uncertainty grows, the number of people moving between jobs (job mobility) will likely stabilise and people will be less likely to quit altogether.

“When there is uncertainty, people tend to keep their jobs because there is some kind of [perceived] principle: last in, first out,” she told news.com.au.

“If you’re the last one to join the company, you’ll have the least training accumulated, least experience in the new job, you’re the least costly person to fire.

“From that perspective, when we’re in a recession that’s one of the reasons people keep to their jobs and don’t want to move.”

Dr Dechter said it was hard to say how long the low unemployment rate – creating a workers’ job market – would continue, but it was “unsustainable”.

“Right now it’s hard to find workers; there are real shortages going on in the labour market,” she said.

“If the RBA starts increasing interest rates more aggressively, it is very likely that there will be in some way economic downturn and unemployment will increase.”

Australia’s unemployment rate over time, according to the ABS. Picture: Seek

It is unknown when the unemployment rate will increase, but Mr Cowgill expects there will still be plenty of opportunities in the next 12 months for jobseekers.

“There’s a lot of economic uncertainty around, but forecasters including the Reserve Bank do expect that unemployment will remain low over the next year … the mid to high 3 per cent range, which is extremely low,” he told news.com.au.

“If unemployment remains low, we will expect to see job ads remain high as well.”

However, no one can be certain.

“There’s a lot of speculation about an imminent recession or imminent economic difficulties, that’s always possible. You can’t rule it out. No one knows what’s going to happen in the future but that’s not the central expectation of forecasters at the moment,” Mr Cowgill said.