Free Resume Advice For Job Seekers

What percentage of the Australian working population do you think are satisfied with their jobs? Here’s what the latest figures show provided by CMyPeople/Galaxy Research in 2008.

1. Working Australians totaling 2.2 million are generally dissatisfied in their chosen job, career or profession. Now, I don’t need to tell you that this is a huge chunk of the Australian working population.

2. More than half of Australian workers did not plan their careers but instead fell into them. This most likely is a leading factor toward general dissatisfaction in one’s job career or profession, hence the statistics in the previous point.

3. Almost two-thirds of the Australian workforce are considering a new job or career. Power to these individuals, it is never too late to make a change! You just have to look at the amount of mature-age individuals attending university degrees. When I was undertaking my Psychology degree a few years back, the mature aged individuals outnumbered those fresh out of high school. In fact, it was not unusual to see students aged well over 45 years of age and I witnessed this across other programs including the Arts, Education and Business just to name a few.

4. Australian workers totaling 75% complain of being pigeonholed by employers because of their present jobs. To ensure that this does not continue, work on developing your resume to show transferability of skills and diversity. I’ll be devoting an entire blog in the next week or so covering this particular area in depth.

5. Of the 25% of Australian workers who actively plan their careers or professions, over 80% were satisfied with their current jobs. For those of you who are dissatisfied, it may be a worthwhile investment in seeking the services of a business which offers specialised career and competency assessment tools. These tools are an objective (and scientifically validated) guide and may help to steer you in the right direction; and provide you with the motivation and desire to embrace change and to simply go for it. Remember to look at change as a positive; you never know the fruits that lie ahead especially when embracing something new.

I’m here to help market you in the best possible way!

Cheers,

Annie Cerone

Following on from last week’s blog on the current Australian job market, let’s look at the shortages within the professions first up. Regardless of current job market conditions, the demand for accountants is outstripping supply on a local, national and global level. The shortage of accountants in Australia is reaching critical level. There is a continuing gap between the supply of domestic accounting graduates and employer demand in Australia. There is also an acute skills shortage in the design professions. These professions include engineers, quantity surveyors, planners, landscape architects. Finally, there is a critical shortfall in professional engineers. Engineers Australia chief executive Peter Taylor states that there is an estimated shortfall of more than 20,000 professional engineers to meet current demand in Australia. Australian universities continue to produce fewer than 6,000 graduates each year. Herein lies a further skills shortage as Taylor asserts that there are not enough teachers with tertiary qualifications in mathematics or science to enable the engineering students to get enthused about and qualified for engineering tertiary studies. Hence, a lack of qualified teachers in these areas.
 
Let’s now look at the skills shortage across the board. Many Australian industries are suffering from a shortage of skilled workers, from automotive and electrical trades to IT and finance. The following is a list of skill shortage areas:

Aged Care

Automotive Electrician

Automotive Vehicle Body – Panel Beater

Automotive Vehicle Body – Vehicle Painter

Automotive Vehicle Body – Vehicle Trimmer Carpenter

Baker/Pastry Chef

Chef/Cook

Children’s Services

Civil Engineering

Community Services

Engineering – Fabrication

Electrical Engineer

Electrician (including electrical wiring)

Electronics

Engineering Tradesperson – Mechanical

Fire Protection

Financial Services

Hairdresser

Information Technology

Electrotechnology Instrumentation Tradesperson

Joiner

Light Vehicle Motor Mechanic

Nurse

Plumber

Refrigeration & Air Conditioning

Wall & Floor Tiling

Regardless of current economic conditions (both nationally and internationally), these skill areas are expected to remain a priority in the future. If you’re looking for a career change, this may be an opportune time to consider it and do some research. Remember, it’s never too late. Here’s a perfect example, in the 1990s I was dealing with an Accountant who was working full time in the profession and in his late 40s. He revealed to me that the following year he would only be working in a part time capacity in order to pursue further studies in medicine. How’s that for a career change!

Cheers,

Annie Cerone

Here are the latest job market statistics:

- The economy lost 44,000 full-time jobs in December 2008.

- The unemployment rate rose to 4.5% from 4.4% in November 2008.

- Full-time employment dropped by 44,000 to 7,640,200 while part-time positions soared 42,800 to 3,102,200, bringing the net loss of jobs to 1200.

- Economists fear the massive decline in full-time employment even offsetting for the rise in part-time employment

- A prominent Senior Economist predicts that job losses will accelerate and predicts the unemployment rate to hit 6% by the end of the year.

- JPMorgan is predicting forecasts a deep labour market adjustment that will result in employment falling 1% during the current recession.

Okay, it sounds bad doesn’t it? You’ve heard the cons, now here are the pros…

- The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the overall jobless rate rose slightly at 4.5%. Economists actually predicted a more substantial rise.
- Leaders in the HR and Recruitment industry remain optimistic (although still cautious) due Australia’s ongoing skills shortage. I’ll be devoting a Blog on this area shortly.

- This is now a time for employers to use the downturn in the economy as an opportunity to get hold of talent which would not normally be on the market, or would be too expensive in more buoyant times.

- A leading industry veteran is predicting a solid recovery in the second quarter of this year.
- A long-time recruiter and commentator said hiring will start to pick up rapidly from April 2009, warning employers to be wary of retrenching their valuable internal recruitment talent.

- This is a good opportunity for employers to replace to analyse and restructure the state of their human resources, specifically, replace underperformers with more quality candidates who are now back on the market due to employment cut backs.

On a final note, we’ve all heard of the term ‘what goes up must come down’, well it also applies in the opposite direction ‘ what goes down can come up’. This is ultimately what will happen with the economy. This downturn will not last forever. My motto has always been ‘there is a positive to every negative, you just have to find it and apply it’. No doubt a lot of you have been affected by the downturn in the job market, but this could be a perfect opportunity for those of you to reassess what it is you really want to do; essentially ask yourself is it time for change. This could be an opportunity to reskill in an area that may interest you more. The fact that there is an increase in part time employment could prompt you to look for part time work while studying. Of course, finances play a big factor in this. However, what is one of the key reasons for this downturn on a global level? The fact that the majority of us have been existing living well beyond our means! This needs to change. Make some adjustments at home, strip everything back to the basics – why do so many of us make our lives more complicated than what they are? Remember, we need to control what is around us, not the other way round!

Stay tuned for next week’s blog on the job skills shortage.

Cheers,

Annie Cerone