So Far, So So. 🤷‍♂️

I’m back! After a lengthy absence due to family commitments, I’m tickling the keys once again. You join me in the post-Waitangi Day market, usually that's when the recruitment industry has summer in the rearview. Trading in its togs and Weber accessories for compendiums and Outlook requests. There’s a reason restructuring looms large toward the tail end of the year. Dec, Jan, and a bit of Feb historically are slower months with things heating up as summer winds down. Businesses have to decide to carry the burden of these lesser lucrative months or as many opted to do, downsize. The industry has never been leaner in my eyes. Our industry exists as a microcosm of wider industries, the ones we recruit for and if our numbers are down it’s because our client's numbers are down. This bodes well for future hiring of course, but when oh when is this windfall of activity going to happen!?

Here at Island Recruitment, we try to add value with these wee blogs aiming to either inform or entertain. This time we’ve saved the value of $6 to the readership by copping the Premium subscription from The NZ Herald. They’ve alluded to some Job market jitters which they say will cast a shadow over the first half of the year. They’ve been able to tap the shoulder of Martin Herbst, JobAdder’s Chief Exec for a bit of data from their Benchmark Report. Apparently, 78% of recruiters find candidate numbers are up. This is no surprise considering how many people are out of the job. When asked about hiring levels, 80% of recruiters said that hiring levels are down. God bless the other 20%, leaning into the denial in the face of what I presume is an online survey. Confidence is way down from a business perspective and while the activity is there, the results are certainly lacking.

That’s the thing! We always look to job adverts as a metric for how well the market is doing for some reason. Seek et al will always ring a bell, triumphantly telling us that job listings are up and there for our chins should be too. Like Agency recruiters aren’t the ones propping up the job boards. You go on any page, for any industry, on any job board and it’ll be littered with agency logos. Look, I understand that writing job ads isn’t glamorous so most recruiters would prefer to outsource, automate, or avoid it completely. However, it’s a necessary tool of the trade. What I don’t get is that we’re on the inside! We know that the drum of activity is being banged relentlessly across the whole industry, and KPIs are set against posting ads. Yet, we’re complicit in believing that just because adverts are plentiful placements are up. It’s like when you see a street full of for-sale signs. It doesn’t mean the market is red hot. It could mean that people are skint and interest rates are high.

Unemployment sits at a little over 5% currently up from 4.8% last quarter and things are likely to get worse before they get better. Jobadder has recommended upskilling during the downturn, opening yourself up to contract positions, and tailoring your approach to be more specific. All sturdy advice for the average job hunter. For you recruiters out there, remain positive. Get in front of clients, go with coffees not the expectation of a role. You’ll likely get the outline of something that resembles a brief or given the description of a candidate you know doesn’t exist. Still, at least you can then go to the market and speak to people. By all means post adverts, I’d recommend the proactive approach over the reactive one but go for gold. As a recruiter I’m eternally optimistic, I think we’ll see some life injected into the industry with the dawn of a new financial year. OCR/Interest rates are good metrics to follow, anything that suggests that the average Kiwi will have more money in their pocket impacts confidence more than anything else.