Job ads recover as lockdown lifts: Bassat

Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat says job advertising volumes have turned the corner as governments lift coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Seek CEO Andrew Bassat. Picture: Aaron Francis

Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat says job advertising volumes have turned the corner as governments lift coronavirus lockdown restrictions, but they are unlikely to match the V-shaped rebound the online jobs group has enjoyed in its China business.

In April Seek withdrew full-year profit guidance, saying billings from job ads dropped by more than half in March due to the global pandemic.

Mr Bassat on Thursday said advertising volumes in Australia and New Zealand had bottomed at a decline of 65 per cent, with revenue off a similar magnitude.

He said the worst-hit sectors such as tourism were off by 95 per cent, while sectors such as mining and insurance were off by 35 per cent or less. Employers were also closely guarding technology roles.

“You are starting to see ad volumes creep up 1-2 per cent a day as people are talking about restrictions coming off,’’ he told the Trans-Tasman Business Circle.

He said the ad volumes for the company’s Chinese recruiting site, Zhaopin, were now back to 90 per cent of pre-virus volumes after falling 60 per cent decline in billings in February.

“China gives me some hope but who knows,’’ he said when asked if the local market would mirror China’s rebound out of lockdown.

“There is a will of governments to get the economy back moving and people back in jobs. That is what you saw in China. Those are arguments that support a quick recovery. But there are lots of economic fundamentals that support this being long and slow.”

While he said the recovery in local volumes would be “semi-sharp” when people came back to work, they would settle at 70-80 per cent of their pre-crisis levels.

In February Seek posted an interim net profit of $75.6m, down 24 per cent from the previous half-yearly result. In April the company deferred the payment of its interim dividend to conserve cash and to continue investment in its core business.

But Mr Bassat, who as Seek’s co-founder has been through several economic and market downturns, reiterated that the company was focused on the long term.

“You can get caught up in the immediacy,’’ he said.

“You have to survive but once you have that under control, it is thinking about once this ends, how does this business look? We are actually looking for opportunities to be better out of this.”

Seek shares have been on a steady rise since late March when they fell below $12. They closed on Thursday at $16.94.

Mr Bassat said there was more that companies like Seek and governments could do to ensure people were training for the right jobs following the COVID-19 crisis and that government funding could be better targeted.

“Government should be able to understand where there are gaps. So rather than providing general funding, providing it in areas where they know people will find jobs. They are the sorts of things you need to start seeing: a recognition of roles that are needed, not ones that are not,’’ he said.

His comments come after Mirvac chief executive Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, the immediate past president of the Property Council of Australia, told the Tran-Tasman Business Circle this week that a “really good co-operation between government and corporate Australia has emerged from this (crisis) and I really hope we don’t lose it.

She said she had found “a genuine openness to ask ­questions”.