Having our regional office in Brisbane gives me the much loved excuse to travel, and more often than not, Sydney is the destination.
It’s now Spring in Australia with the new financial year well underway, many of my clients are in budget mode. It never ceases to amaze me how many will still find the time to catch up for at least a coffee for the overview of the market. On this occasion I could only afford 4 days out of the office, but when averaging 8 – 9 meetings a day, your caffeine levels can go through the roof.
With Australia’s unemployment rate remaining steady at 5.8%, and positive sounds from the Asian and US economies, there is definitely positive sentiment in the air about the improving global economy. This seems to have many of our clients thawing out their recruitment freezes from September 08, and bringing a mixture of new and replacement roles to the table. Given Australia dodged the global trend of “mass redundancies” in the actuarial space, there is definitely more heat placed on the demand for the actuarial skill set.
With many wage freeze policies put in place at the end of 2009, there is also heat coming from the talent pool. Many young actuaries are beginning to look actively again at external opportunities to progress their careers as they are finding that staff turnover + recruitment freeze = increased workload, without increased salary compensation. And if this Spring time visit to Sydney has taught me one thing, it’s that the job market in Australia this summer may be very hot.