SSC

I work with an organisation that assists companies in Australia who are experiencing skills shortages. I am loathed to use the word recruitment because it seems no-one has a good word to say about recruiters.

Solutions we offer are upskilling (we work with TAFE), retention schemes, interstate and international recuriment.

Currently our focus is mainly health - however we do have clients in regional areas who are finding it hard to source skilled workers. There is also a shortage of individuals with experience in the power sector ie those with oil and gas experience.

I've noticed that more and more posts are appearing in forums from people concerned about the job market here.

We recruit a lot of nurses and we have begun to offer their partners job search assistance so that they remain in Australia rather than returning back to the UK/Ireland as they are trying to support themselves on one income.

About 18 months ago we refused to place individuals in construction, trades or IT in metropolitan areas on 457 visas unless they had a visa strategy to PR worked out and discussed with a MARA registered agent because most of us in the business world were aware that there would be a downturn in the job market and began planning for it - not only to support our candidates but also to ensure that we could retain the jobs of the people we employ within our organisation.

The job market is becoming more and more competitive. We have always prided ourselves on responding to all applications. However we recently advertised a job and we didn't expect a very big response. We received over 400 applications and a high volume of calls. We had to take the advertisement down after ten days because the applications kept on flooding through.

If you are not in health or engineering and have secure jobs in your own country I would delay your arrival in Australia unless you have sufficient funds to support yourself for three to six months OR if you don't mind obtaining Australian work experience and working in a job that pays between $20-$23 per hour.

As I am receiving so many requests from newly arrived migrants every day I thought I would pass on some tips that I've been giving out to them.

If you are coming to Brisbane avoid the Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast. The main industry is tourism and the payrates in these areas are lower. They are beautiful places to live and if you think about it if work was plentiful in these areas don't you think more people would live there rather than Brisbane?

The area that will be undergoing huge development is Ipswich. There is a regional development plan for south-east Queensland and Ipswich and the surrounding area is where all future affordable housing will be built and where all future industrial development will be located. There is a huge health park and education park being built at Springfield Lakes. There is also a lot of infastructure being built. If you are coming to Brisbane on a reccie check out this area and the potential for employment opportunities.

In Queensland when there are roadworks or construction going on where they need to close part of a road they don't have mobile traffic lights they have traffic controllers. It's not the most exciting of jobs but they are always looking for people. You need a licence and the penalty rates are good at weekends - but it can be very boring standing in the road with a lollipop saying stop or go. On the upside because you're working alongside construction sites/road works it's a good way of developing contacts and hearing where jobs are coming up.

Taxi drivers - again you'll need a licence. Called Yellow Cabs or Black and White - they are always looking for drivers.

Bus Drivers - they are expanding the service here in Brisbane

Warehousing in the food sector - IGA have distribution centres in Canning Vale in Perth and here in Brisbane. Often people don't want to work in Cold Storage.

Get an Aussie forklift licence

Use a good agency - for warehousing and manufacturing try Integrated at Springwood. Don't judge an agency by a name it depends on the people who work there and this agency always has jobs.

If there are any engineers out there who have oil and gas experience let me know and I'll put you in contact with a specialist agency.

Get your qualifications slotted into an Australian Qualifications Framework. You might be able to do this through RPL - our organisaton arranges this through TAFE. Go on a short TAFE course. It may sound silly but Australian employers like Australian work experience. If you have an Australian qualification it gives the impression of having Australian training so your resume will more likely get through the first selection round.

Don't be misled by advertisements on SEEK. There are often multiple advertisements for the same job being advertised by the employer and several other recruitment agencies. Remember often recruitment companies have to go out and find the jobs by cold calling.

Give serious consideration to South Australia. It's economy is not reliant on the mining sector like Queensland and WA plus they are offering a range of settlement services such as meet and greet, arranging short term accommodation, job search assistance and RPL of overseas qualifications.

If you are a metal tradesperson in Queensland think of doing something else for a while. A flood of candidates came back onto the market when some of the mines closed and a lot of the businesses were supplying the mining sector.

Also often the true unemployment figure is hidden here as it doesn't take into account casual workers who've had their hours reduced. Some workers at Brisbane docks have had more than a 50% reduction in their hours.

There have been two news articles out today both indicating higher levels of unemployment that previously thought

http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au...04/2532715.htm

More job losses in Queensland

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...02/2533026.htm

I would say it is still worth applying for your visa as you have up to five years to live in Australia as long as you validate your visa within the required time period. Don't worry about priority processing unless you are a health worker/engineer or are happy to work in a regional area.

Give consideration to regional areas. We have some carer vacancies in Central Queensland that we have been trying to fill for months. These communities have a lot to offer.

I know this post may contain news/information that people may not want to hear but I'm on the "front line" so to speak and I have tried to keep it as balanced as possible.

I hope that people find it useful and that I haven't put anyone coming to Australia - it's just that people need to focus on where the work is not where is the nicest place to live and come here with their eyes open and be prepared to do anything to get that Aussie work experience.

livinginreality

Sounds like good sensible advice to me!

Damson

Many thanks for such a detailed and helpful post. We have got our 175 visas in January and had a plan to move over early next year (we run our own business so shutting it down, sorting the house out etc means that it would be very difficult to move over any sooner ). Our dream was to move out and have a year off to catch our breath and become a family again and then look for a job at the end of that. Like most people we had a 2 year 'see how it goes' plan as to whether to stay or not, but that will seriously affect the kids' education as the 8 year old would be trying to slot back into the UK education just when we are thinking about senior schools, which is not ideal. OH is a consulting structural engineer and Project Co-ordinator and by the look of things, getting a job in Melbourne would be pretty tricky. We are therefore validating in July and will see where that takes us. All in all it is pretty disappointing to have gone to the lengths we have and not to take the plunge, but with the current global economic climate to shut down a successful business would be financial suicide. I think it's cerainly worth thinking about hanging on for a bit to see how things pan out. Thanks again for the post.

annamichelle2310

Hi
I am planning on migrating to Brisbane in June.
I am a Chartered Certified Accountant- do you have any info on the financial recruitment market at all?

I am going to be studying Australian Tax & Company Law for the first few months- do you think I will get some work, if I am prepared to do virtually anything to begin with?

Hope you can help!

mad city fan

True and honest post, Thankyou

Keith Moon

Do not mind, at todays exchange rate that equates to £11.00 an hour.

See my thread?
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594579

Yep the Gold Coast, Southport here i come!

Only want to work say weekends, even nights, 20 hours per week@$20 per hour will be enough for me, do you think i will be fine?


Great post by the way, many thanks.

Hills Boy

Good post, great advice and required reading for job-seeking prospective immigrants to these fine shores.

kporte

Good post and I can echo the part about metal trades.
Could be good for us as we may well be looking to hire soon if things continue to pick up as they have in the last few weeks. We may actually get some responses to the ads this time

SSC

The only thing you will find is you'll be competing for jobs against international students who can only work 20 hours per week and this is the type of work they look for.

An effective approach (although some find it intimidating) is to go around and hand out your resume.

SSC

You should be fine. When we were candidate short we found a small ad in the local newspaper produced better candidates rather than people who go through SEEK and just go click and apply. It's a different market now - but the candidates who are more mature tend to look through newspaper ads

kporte

Yes , we have found the newspaper the most productive

SSC

The finance sector has suffered a major downturn and there used to be a huge shortage of accountants - it's not as candidate short as it used to be I'd try ABT Recruitment and Steve Semmens Executive Recruitment. As with everything in Australia the hardest thing is getting that first step on the ladder.

Ignore what agencies tell you - sign on with everyone. They used to tell people not to sign on with many but that was because it was a candidate short market and they didn't want the candidate to go elsewhere.

Steve Semmens has many, many contacts in the finance sector. He's been in the business for 19 years. He really looks after his candidates.

We recruit accountants from time to time but our main focus is currently being taken up by health.

As you're studying Australian tax laws this will give you an advantage.

Accountants are still on the CSL which is an indication that they're still needed here and are in short supply hence DIAC giving them priority processing.

Good luck and PM me when you get here if you have any difficulties. It's not what you know - it's who you know.

pawpaw

Hi SSC

Thanks for the valuable info...

Have you any idea about the job market for Quantity Surveyor?

If the job market is real bad, I am thinking to get retrain with TAFE for cert III in aged care. I do not mind switching industry if necessary. But the only thing that bothers me is- will my family (3 of us in total) be able to survive on the salary of a newly started off aged care worker?

eugene43

Hi I am a Dental Technician in your opion what are the job prostpects for this trade in the current climate or could you give me some pointers to wear i can find the info as the normal avenues are hopless thanks.

nicola27

Fantastic post, found it very useful.
We are hoping to make the move in 2 yrs to Queensland. My partner is a Gas Fitter and all we have heard from other Gas Fitters is that there are no jobs available to people in this trade although it is on the list. Could you advise us of any area you may no of that would require Gas Fitters.

Many thanks
Nicola