Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey

The National Skills Commission surveys approximately 1,200 employers each month to find out about their experience when recruiting staff as well as whether they are expecting to increase staffing levels. This feedback provides insights about labour market conditions and to develop resources designed to help job seekers understand what employers are looking for.

The Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS) is one of a number of sources of labour market information available, including the Internet Vacancy Index (IVI), Small Area Labour Markets (SALM), the Employment Region Dashboards and Profiles the Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation (NERO), and Five-Year Employment Projections.

Key indicators - May 2022

Recruitment activity

Recruitment activity varies by location and industry and reflects other factors which may be having an impact on the economy, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2022:

59% of employers were recruiting in May 2022, 3 percentage points higher than last month and the highest proportion since the series began in June 2020.
The recruitment rate in Capital Cities (58%) was slightly lower than in Rest of State areas (60%).

Source: National Skills Commission, Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey, May 2022

Recruitment difficulty

In May 2022, some 68% of recruiting employers experienced recruitment difficulty, an increase of 4 percentage points since April 2022.

Proportion of recruiting employers with recruitment difficulty, by region type

Source: National Skills Commission, Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey, May 2022

Staffing outlook

Employers are asked how they expect their staffing levels to change over the next 3 months.

In May 2022:

32% of employers expected to increase their staffing levels over the next 3 months, which was a decline on April 2022 (36%), but 12 percentage points higher compared with a year ago.
2% of employers expected to decrease their staffing levels over the next 3 months.

Expectations to increase staff by region type, as a proportion of all employers

Source: National Skills Commission, Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey, May 2022

Spotlight

Time taken to fill (or try to fill) vacancies

As part of the REOS, recruiting employers have been asked about the time it has taken them to fill their vacancies (if they filled all their vacancies), or how long they have had vacancies go unfilled (if they had at least one unfilled vacancy). This month's Spotlight shows findings from looking at the length of time filling – or trying to fill – vacancies. Some key findings include:

Since 2019, and over 2021-22 to date an ever-increasing proportion of recruiting employers had at least one of their vacancies go unfilled for more than one month.
Employers recruiting for Community and Personal Service Workers and Labourers have seen the largest shifts in the time it takes to fill vacancies.
Recruitment difficulty has increased in parallel with the length and success of recruitment, with those on the extreme end who had vacancies go unfilled for longer than one month experiencing the highest level of difficulty.

For more information, please see the full report published below (Recruitment Insights Report - May 2022).

Reports

Recruitment Insights Report – monthly

The Recruitment Insights Report highlights key findings and trends in recruitment activity, recruitment difficulty and future staffing expectations. Each report is accompanied by an excel datafile containing time series data for each key indicator. Each report also features a 'Spotlight' section which explores a particular topic.

The Spotlight for May 2022 explores how the time taken to fill vacancies varies by the occupation recruited for, and how this has changed since before the onset of COVID-19.

Recruitment Insights Report May 2022

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