The August Recruitment Insights Report with the latest Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS) data is now available.
Results indicate that there was a decrease in the recruitment rate, lowering to levels last seen over much of 2021. Recruitment difficulty and the proportion of employers expecting to increase staffing levels remained relatively steady. This month’s results indicate that labour market conditions continue to soften, particularly compared with this time last year when recruitment activity and difficulty were at near all-time highs — also in line with the Internet Vacancy Index results for August 2023 which showed a decline in internet vacancies.
Recruitment activity fell by 5 percentage points over the month, with 46% of employers recruiting, 10 percentage points lower than a year ago.
A higher proportion of employers (48%) recruited in regional Australia (or Rest of State areas) than in the Capital Cities (44%) in August 2023. Over the month, recruitment activity decreased by 6 percentage points in Capital Cities and by 4 percentage points in Rest of State areas.
Recruitment difficulty edged up slightly by 2 percentage points to 61% of recruiting employers in August 2023, (representing 28% of all employers). Notably, recruitment difficulty is now 13 percentage points lower than a year ago.
The proportion of employers who expected to increase staffing levels over the next 3 months rose by 1 percentage point, to 24% in August 2023.
