Jobs rebound imminent, says leading headhunter

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 30 July 2009 20:02

Business IT - Technology

There’s good news on the job front, with the dramatic decline in demand for Australian executives late last year coming to a halt and new forecasts of a rebound and recovery over coming months in the wider employment market.

Leading headhunting firm, E.L.Consult, said today the demand for Australian executives had pulled out of the “freefall” in the three months to December last year – when demand fell “a frightening” 42 percent – and now looks set for a recovery in the third quarter.

Releasing the results of the firm’s executive job index, E.L.Consult managing director, Grant Montgomery, said he also expected general employment levels to hit their lowest point in the last quarter of the year, and then start to recover.

“Given that the E.L Index tends to lead general employment trends by between three and six months, I would expect that we will begin to see a bottoming in general employment levels in the last quarter of the year, and the general employment statistics starting to recover as early as April 2010.”

And, there’s also a note of optimism for the general employment market and those keen to retain their jobs, with Montgomery saying that, based on E.L.Consult’s research, the generally touted 8.5 per cent peak in the general unemployment is unlikely.

According to Montgomery, a number of economic indicators are bottoming if not turning positive, including such important indicators as the rate of first-time unemployment claims in the United States.

“US stock markets are currently at their high point for 2009, benefiting from a better than expected corporate profit reporting season.

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