Engineering Recruitment – Market Commentary – July 2023 (NEW FORMAT)

Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment has produced this Market Commentary every quarter since October 2011. Our aim has been to inform our candidates and clients for the purposes of assisting their careers and for recruiting engineering talent.

From this Commentary onwards, we’re making some changes that will hopefully provide you with increased knowledge of the Engineering Recruitment landscape. We’ll give you a general overview of how we see the employment/recruitment market for Engineers based on our direct experience. But we also know that Engineers like data (we know this because all of our Recruiters are Engineers), so we’re supplying some easy-to-digest specialised data which SEEK will provide to us each quarter:

• We’ve included indicative salary bands for 16 mainstream Engineering roles in the States where we operate most frequently ie VIC, NSW, QLD & SA. This data is based on salaries disclosed by SEEK advertisers in the most recent 3 months.
• We’re also including data on job ad growth for certain Engineering roles which will indicate the level of employer demand for these roles compared with a year ago.

We hope you enjoy the revised format.

Some recent candidate trends we’ve observed include:

• an understanding that the job market is cooling with the number of advertised jobs declining
• an increased number of applications per open job that we have been working on
• a willingness to consider a lower remuneration package where hybrid working conditions are available
• a heightened keenness to consider a regional role if suitable
• more interest in working for companies where a strong positive culture is evident
• elevated inclinations to accept contract roles over permanent ones in certain cases
• a reduction in unpredictable candidate behaviour where there are chances to craft new opportunities
• a stronger understanding that soft skills are vital for long term and sustainable success

Some recent client trends include:

• cost of living pressures are real and in order to avoid resignations, key personnel need to be looked after
• an increased understanding that it is on average still taking longer to fill roles than in previous years even though candidate applications have risen
• an acceptance that it is currently a candidate driven market meaning clients need to sell their companies and all of their offerings
• a willingness to propose attractive packages for well suited applicants with some clients even offering attractive sign on bonuses
• an understanding that candidates have choice and hence a positive company culture is crucial
• recognition that interviews are 2-way and clients choose employees but also candidates choose employers
• a comprehension that it is better to retain strong talent than to lose them and to have to try and rehire
• a deeper awareness in order for a business to go from good to great, the right people are required but also in the right seats

To find out more about our Engineering Recruitment Services, you can click here