Businesses are hiring less casuals and receiving more applications
Businesses continue to hire less casuals than they were this time last year with the average business posting 9% less shifts YoY. April to July 2022 was the height of the job boom, which was driven by pent up consumer demand, absenteeism caused by COVID and severe labour shortages in part driven by a lack of international workers. We expect to see a continued YoY decline in shifts per customer until around October which is where in 2022 we began to see the supply and demand for labour reach a more balanced level.
We have also seen a normalisation between Australia and New Zealand as both countries exited Covid lockdowns at different speeds. NZ was slower to come out of lockdown and as such the shifts per business has been steadily trending upwards as opposed to Australia which rushed out of Lockdowns in early 22 and saw businesses needing lots of staff due to demand pressures.
In both markets we have seen a rapid increase in the number of international registrations with NZ international registrations growing 600% YoY and Australia’s growing. Two industries in Australia that are facing the biggest movements in shift per business and applications per shift are Hospitality & Events and Aged Care. Both of these industries suffered immense labour shortages in the middle of 2022. As the labour pressures in these industries eased so has the number of shifts per hirer.
Industry Insights
The Hospitality and Events industry led the overall decline in the amount of shifts per business falling 32% MoM and 41% YoY. This industry faced significant labour shortages in early 2022 as the economy opened and people craved experiences coupled with a significant reduction in international workers when compared to precovid levels. We expect to see this industry to remain subdued as we enter the winter months and expect to see a continued easing in supply with applications per shift improving 315% YoY. The change in dynamics saw overall worker rates decline 6% YoY as wage pressure ease.
Aged Care businesses also saw significant YoY declines in the number of shifts per business falling 29% YoY. This time last year the economy was opening and COVID was running rampant creating chaos for the sector which was creating significant staffing challenges. Pleasingly these have eased with a 400% YoY improvement in the applications per shift. Similar to the hospitality and events sector the easing of labour challenges has led to a 10% YoY decline in average wages on our platform.
The Warehousing and Logistics sector has seen much more modest swings both on a MoM and YoY basis. Overall the number of shifts per business has grown 17% YoY despite an erosion in consumer sentiment driven by rising inflation and the resulting increases in interest rates as the RBA try to pull back inflation. Whilst labour pressures in this sector have eased the YoY movements have been far less pronounced growing 26% YoY.
Customer Service, Administration & Office Support (White Collar) saw similar growth rates to Warehousing & logistics with the number of shifts per business growing 17% YoY and applications per shift growing 2% YoY.
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