Banking and financial services jobs to grow by 4.5% over next three years

Despite Australian unemployment rates being at a 12 year high (6.4%), the temporary employment market continues to grow with more than 3.5million jobs even though almost two-thirds (62.6%) of Australians want permanent roles, according to the Adecco Employment and Talent Report 2015.

Launched today, the Report highlights the growing gulf between what employers are offering and what employees want with permanent jobs, salary increases, flexible hours and childcare provisions all in dispute.

“There is a growing disconnect between what workers want and what the market is willing to offer”, said Neil Jones, Chief Executive Officer, Adecco Group, Australia & New Zealand. “Salary increases are down this year and there is a reduction in many workplace benefits such as flexible working hours but these are what is most important to the workforce.”

Fewer businesses will offer wage increases in 2015 (42.6%) compared to 2014 (46.5%) and of those who will, only 10% plan to offer increases of 3-5% or higher than CPI, compared to 77.3% in 2014. Tellingly the main reason employees leave their companies is for salary reasons (43.1%) but only 18.7% of employers recognise this.

Adding to the debate on supporting working parents, while 58.1% of employers offer paid maternity leave and 40.2% flexible working hours for parents, only 1.7% offered child care contribution or child care in the workplace, despite 11.7% of employees believing organisations should provide a child care contribution and 10.9% would like to see child care in the workplace. Indeed, flexible working hours for parents was seen as more important by almost half of the workforce (49.1%) than paid maternity leave (28.7% of respondents).

Worklife balance is main attraction to a new role (67.3% upfrom 60.5 in 2014) followed by salary (57.5% down from 59.8% in 2014) and opportunity to grow (51.8% up from 49.4% in 2014) where candidates could choose more than one option.

Education and training remain key benefits offered by employers in 2015 (46.2%) but less than 2014 (56.5%). Flexible working hours have reduced from 44.1% in 2014 to 39.3% in 2015 but bonuses have increased from 29.2% in 2014 to 34.2% in 2015.

Employers say high salary expectations (19.8%), not being ‘job ready’ (17%), a lack of experience (15.1%) and having the wrong attitude (15.1%) are the main reasons for high youth unemployment which at 14.2% is of huge concern to employment agencies such as Adecco. “Youth unemployment is at a record high around the world.  We need a concerted effort to encourage employers, educators and parents to work together get young people job ready.”

And on the issue of temporary versus permanent employment Mr Jones says “Temporary labour is an important factor in sustaining a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace, and even more so in this economic climate. A temporary workforce gives employers the flexibility to efficiently manage the demand and supply fluctuations in their business. The challenge for today’s workforce is to determine how they can make this rapidly changing job landscape work for them.

About the Report

• The report uses a number of data sources including:
– the Australian Bureau of Statistics
– findings from the Adecco Client and Candidate Survey (November 2014)
– a custom built econometric model by EMDA (Economic & Marketing Development Advisors)

• The Adecco Client and Candidate survey was issued in November 2014

• Sample size was 118 client organisations; 569 Adecco candidates

• The Report also publishes market expectations and salary levels for the following industry sectors:

– office support
– contact centre
– banking & finance
– accounting & finance
– sales marketing & retail
– ICT sector
– manufacturing
– transport & logistics
– trades
– engineering & technical