A report by Melbourne Institute Wages confirms a 3.2% increase in total pay growth in the 12 months to Feb, 2010.  Dr Edda Claus, a research fellow said similar outcomes for total pay and hourly wage rates suggest “some weakness remains in the labour market”.  A very moderate 2.2 per cent rise in pay over the next 12 months is expected by the respondents that took part in the survey.  Which means good news to inflationary pressures rising from wages.  

According to the Australian Institute of Management’s (AIM) National Salary Survey 2009 large companies are still forecasting wage increases of 3.5 per cent for 2009/2010 – albeit less than the 4.3 per cent actual increase reported in 2008/2009 – with the biggest winners likely to be senior executives and the biggest losers salaried staff, according to the nation’s leading survey of salaries and human resources.  The state that recorded the highest salary rise for 2008/2009 was Western Australia at 5.1per cent, while Victoria/Tasmania recorded the lowest (4.0 per cent). When compared to salary movements recorded in last year’s (2008) AIM Survey, Western Australia and Queensland recorded the greatest fall (down 1.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively).

The report further on went to say that the highest annual salary movement by job level was recorded for Senior Executives and Professional Technical staff (both 4.4 per cent) while Salaried Staff had the lowest average salary rise (4.1 per cent). On an industry-basis, the highest salary increases were recorded for the Mining & Quarrying and Electronics/IT industries (5.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively). The lowest increases were reported within all of the various Manufacturing sub-groups (between 3.8per cent and 4.0 per cent).

According to the Age the Unions are set to launch the most aggressive minimum wages push with an expected increase in wages of $30 a week.  This follows a decision by the Howard-era Fair Pay Commission to freeze the wages of up to 1.3 million workers during the Global Financial Crises. The ACTU claims the Fair Pay Commission’s four decisions resulted in 1.3 million award-reliant workers having their real wages fall by $15 to $29 a week by June 2010.

Inflation is expected to rise to 2.25 per cent for next financial year, which could add a further $12 a week to the claim. This means that ACTU’s claim will far exceed last year’s $21 a week claim and is most likely to be in a range from nearly $30 to $40 a week.

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence in an interview with the Age said the process under the Fair Pay Commission lacked transparency and its former chairman, Professor Ian Harper, had ”essentially prejudged” last year’s freeze after he gave interviews before the decision in which he warned about the need to protect jobs. ”It was totally unacceptable,” Mr Lawrence said.

Now we know that job seeking is never ever easy and although posting a profile here will take half of that work away from you due to employers doing the seeking, you still need to make sure you’re in tip-top shape! And don’t think just because your profile can last you a lifetime that you never need to look at it again…well you can think that, if you want the same job for the rest of your life…

For those of you “corporate ladder climbers” who are always on the look-out for better opportunities; firstly we recommend posting a profile so that our employers can actually see you and then read the below article aptly titled “Rebranding yourself” to ensure you keep attracting the kind of new opportunities you want.

For more helpful hints and tips on;

• Interview questions,
• What to wear to a job interview,
• Resume templates,
• Creating the perfect resume and many more, click here.

By Rhymer Rigby , Financial Times, 15 Nov 2009

The insecurity created by the downturn has prompted many people to reassess whether they are projecting the right image in the workplace. For some, the conclusion is that they need to rebrand themselves.

Is Re-branding just like a makeover?

Far from it. Like businesses, individuals often need to rebrand themselves when perceptions do not accurately reflect the underlying reality. “You might have joined a business very young and grown up,” says Wally Olins, chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants, “but people still perceive you as the office junior.”

Equally, it could be that part of who you are is having a disproportionately negative impact on your overall image – for example, a messy desk could cast you as disorganised or a tendency to raise your voice could lead to the perception that you are unreasonable.

Are there any easy wins?

There are plenty of little, cosmetic things that can tarnish your brand, says Kim Fletcher, managing director of Trinity Management Communications. “I used to cycle in and instead of changing immediately, I’d answer a call and before I knew it, I’d been working for an hour in scruffy old clothes,” he says. “Looking like that at your desk does belittle you in other people’s eyes.”

Addressing areas such as this is a quick way to brush up your workplace image. “Try and see yourself through your colleagues’ eyes and write down a list of things you need to work on,” he says.

What if my brand has more fundamental problems?

In this case, you may need to dig deeper. “The key is discovering what people find compelling about you and building on that foundation,” says Louise Mowbray, a personal branding consultant. She suggests you go to your “market” or “audience” – colleagues, senior managers or suppliers – and ask them how they perceive you, what irritates them and what they like. Then work on the bad points and deliver on the good ones. “It’s about adding value and giving people what they want consistently,” she says. “Consistency builds trust in a personal brand.”

You need to find your niche, then get your name out as the person to go to for whatever it is. Ms Mowbray adds that this should be subtle: “Arrange for a speaker to come in who’s an expert in your area and do the organising; some of their brand will rub off on you. Blog. Write articles. Show people how great you are – don’t tell them.”

How long does it take?

Just as it takes a long time to create bad perceptions, erasing them can’t be done overnight.

What if there are failings from your past that are not so easy to consign to history?

Mr Olins says you can’t deal with problems by ignoring them – if you worked for a failed bank, being upfront about it may help your brand recover but pretending it never happened won’t. But there are limits to what a rebranding can achieve. There is the so-called “career-limiting move” – a mistake so egregious, you never recover. “Some events are so strong you can’t dissociate yourself from them,” says Mr Fletcher. “In this case, you need to move jobs. That’s the best rebranding opportunity of all.”

As we’ve been reporting it would seem that the employment slump is starting to cease (see blog articles below). The common expectation is that we will once again see a labour short market which will be a welcomed relief to most.

If you want to make sure you’re putting yourself “out there” without having to search yourself make sure you post a profile here so that potential employers can find you and offer you that ideal opportunity.

Article obtained from ninemsn.com.au

Demand for new workers rose sharply last month in a vote of confidence in the economic recovery from the business community.

While this won’t stop the jobless rate rising further in the near term, the recent strength of job advertising does suggest the peak will probably be shy of the 6.75 per cent predicted by the government, economists say.

However, the construction sector – a major employer – remains fragile and won’t be helped by recent interest rate rises.

The ANZ job advertisement series – a key pointer to future employment growth – rose 5.2 per cent in November compared to the previous month, and now stands 12.3 per cent higher than the low recorded in July.

ANZ acting chief economist Warren Hogan said the improvement in job advertising would eventually translate into higher employment growth.

“The recent strength in job advertising is consistent with the positive trends seen in many other indicators across the Australian economy,” Mr Hogan said releasing the report on Monday.

“Taken together, these… imply that Australia’s recovery from the recent downturn is gathering pace.”

Newspaper job ads surged 8.3 per cent in November while internet job ads were up five per cent.

Official labour force data is November are due to be published on Thursday.

Economists expect the data to show a modest rise in employment, but not by enough to stop the unemployment rate ticking up to 5.9 per cent, which would be the highest level in over six years.

The jobless rate has been ranging between 5.5 per cent and 5.8 per cent since March of this year.

Still, National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis said the jobs ads data was consistent with the economic growth momentum that had been seen during the September quarter carrying over to the final three months of this year.

“With employers looking to increase payroll numbers, that’s a big vote of confidence in the outlook for business into the first half of next year,” Mr de Garis said.

However, other data released on Monday showed the construction industry remains fragile, highlighted by a drop in new orders and a fall in employment.

The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group)-Housing Industry Association (HIA) performance of construction index was down 3.3 points at 47.6 in November.

This was below the critical 50 point level that separates expansion from contraction, although well above the lows seen earlier this year.

“The second straight month of falling new orders across the construction industry suggest the current soft market conditions are likely to persist, at least into the early part of next year,” Ai Group director of public policy Peter Burn said releasing the data.

While he was encouraged that the housing sector had continued to grow, the rate of improvement appeared to have slowed over the past two months due to a weakening in first home buyer activity.

“Recent interest rate rises are likely to further dampen growth over coming months,” he said.

HIA senior economist Ben Phillips said the new homes and apartments market was simply “treading water” while Australia’s population was growing at record levels.

“A much needed new homes recovery is being muted by higher interest rates and the removal of the first home buyers grant boost,” he said.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) has reported a rise in vacancies in skilled vacancies for a consecutive month since July last year. In January 2010 the vacancies for skilled vacancies rose to 1.1 per cent in January, following a 1.9 per cent increase in the December reading of the index. The vacancies for associate professionals also jumped up to 1.3 per cent and trades, jumped to 3.9 per cent in the month. The professionals group fell 4.0 per cent.

ANZ has reported that job advertisements in major newspapers have risen by 1.6 per cent in trend terms in February to 44.4, but were 2.6 per cent lower than last year. Newspaper job ads have also increased by 13.9 per cent in New South Wales and 11.6 per cent in Victoria, seasonally adjusted.

In the Australian Capital Territory, newspaper job ads increased to 10.6 per cent, while they gained 9.5 per cent in Queensland. In Western Australia, newspaper job ads rose 4 per cent, ANZ said.  South Australia newspaper job ads edged down 0.3 per cent, seasonally adjusted, while in Tasmania the ads reduced by an estimated 8.9 per cent.

Thinking of changing states or coming to Australia, Sydney is too expensive and you don’t want the lazy WA lifestyle? Well Melbourne seems to be the “place to be for 2010”…

In a recent report The City of Melbourne’s Business Melbourne branch in delivering business development services that highlight the job potential in Melbourne is focussing on industries who:

• Are emerging,
• are predominantly populated by Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs),
• have potential to be exporters of goods and services,
• display niche capabilities that could be highly sought after by the global investment market,
• are experiencing growth in recruitment in Melbourne,
• require support for industry development initiatives that other levels of government may not provide,
• are open to the potential of clustering and can assist Melbourne in achieving its ambition to become a Knowledge City, and
• who boost Melbourne’s capabilities in those industries and assist in making Melbourne a sought after business and investment location.

Melbourne has certainly become a city that is a global destination for business and investment in Australia. Melbourne has a diverse range of businesses and organisations operating in a wide range of industries. This makes recruitment in Melbourne both challenging and diverse.  These industries are at various stages of development, some are mature and in some cases self-regulating and supporting. Others are well supported by other levels of government. Some focus mainly on the domestic market.

One of examples of companies who have seen the potential in investing in Melbourne is NetApp, a California- based data storage provider, is planning on expanding its Melbourne office. According to the company, this move will add “at least” 68 new jobs to Victoria’s information and communications technology sector. This is good news for recruitment in Melbourne.

NetApp Vice President for Australia and New Zealand Peter O’Connor said that the decision to expand its Melbourne office was easy. ”There are many opportunities for our business across Australia and South-East Asia and a significant portion of these will come out of Melbourne,” he says.

The company employs more than 8,000 people with revenues of US$3.4 billion. It also has offices in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. This expansion into Melbourne will greatly boast recruitment in Melbourne.

The expansion comes at an opportune time when recruitment in Melbourne is at an all time low and the nation’s jobless ration on the rise. Victoria is among the hardest hit areas with a decline in export demand. Premier John Brumby said that NetApps expansion is “a vote of confidence in the Victorian economy at a time when economies around the world were being affected by the global financial crisis.”

Top Things to Do at Work while Job Hunting…

It’s 2010 and Christmas is now a distant memory and you’re stuck at work with a whole year to look forward to…in fact it’s the second month and work isn’t THAT busy so,

…You’ve paid all your bills,

…Re-jigged your Annual, Monthly, Weekly, even Daily budget,

…Responded to all the e-mails of every other person trying to stave off the dreariness of being in the same (or worse) job as you vowed to leave last year…

AND NOW YOU’RE BORED!

Well we thought in the spirit of 2010 and whilst you’re waiting for that dream job to come seek for you that we would post everyone’s suggestions for Things to Do at Work:

Here is a list of some favourites;

• Office practical jokes
• Online games
• Budget templates (yawn who thought of that one!)
• Funky new websites
• Latest holiday deals / packages to dream the time away
• Celeb gossip
• Top News Articles
• Top newsworthy sites