Recruitment insights

Insights from employers

The Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey conducted by Jobs and Skills Australia surveys approximately 1,200 employers each month to find out about their experience when recruiting staff. See the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey page for information about the survey and to access the monthly and annual reports.

In addition to these regular publications exploring trends in recruitment activity, recruitment difficulty and employers’ staffing outlook, the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey provides a rich dataset that allows additional analysis on a range of issues and themes. 

Topics that have been explored include:

Recruitment difficulty

As part of the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey, employers who recruited in the past month are asked if they had (or are having) difficulty filling their vacancies. The proportion of recruiting employers that had difficulty can be tracked over time to determine how well labour supply is meeting labour demand. For more information on how the rate of recruitment difficulty is tracking over time, please see the latest Recruitment Insights Report on this page. The reports below provide insight into various aspects of recruitment difficulty.

This short report shows how the recruitment difficulty rate is derived, and shows to what extent employers with difficulty are actually able to fill their vacancies. It was featured as the Spotlight for the February 2022 Recruitment Insights Report.

The Employers' perspectives on recruitment difficulty report provides detailed analysis on recruitment difficulty - particularly over the March to July 2021 period. Included in this report are qualitative insights from employers comparing their most recent recruitment to recruitment conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

How does recruitment difficulty impact employers? The report below provides an overview of how employers are affected when they struggle to find the staff they need. This report was featured as the Spotlight of the Recruitment Insights Report - November 2021, available here.

Recruitment difficulty was particularly prevalent for hospitality workers in 2021. The report below, featured as the Spotlight in the October 2021 Recruitment Insights Report, provides further insights into the extent of recruitment difficulty for Hospitality Workers.

The report below outlines key trends across time in internet vacancies and recruitment difficulty, focusing on differences between Capital Cities and Rest of State areas.

Impacts of COVID-19 on businesses

The impacts of COVID-19 on businesses report provides detailed insights into how and to what extent businesses have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how this has changed over time.

Recruitment methods used by employers

Overview of employers' recruitment methods

Employers used a range of methods to find staff, including recruitment websites, social media, employment agencies and word of mouth. The page linked below outlines how common these methods are, including when disaggregated by skill level of the vacancy and location of the employer.

Recruitment methods used by employers

Recruitment through Facebook Job Groups

This report outlines how employers use Facebook Jobs Groups to find staff.

Recruitment methods Spotlight

This Spotlight, published as part of the June 2022 Recruitment Insights Report, provides an overview of employers' recruitment methods in 2021.

Spotlight topics

The reports below cover various topics and have been adapted from the Spotlight sections of the JSA's monthly Recruitment Insights Report.

Recruitment difficulty when hiring Hospitality Workers (February 2023)

This Spotlight examines employers' experiences when recruiting for Hospitality Workers.

2022 in Review (January 2023)

This Spotlight looks at trends in recruitment activity over the 2022 calendar year.

Employers who hired a jobless applicant (November 2022)

This Spotlight provides an update on the types of positions for which employers most often hired a jobless applicant.

Comparing Capital Cities and Rest of State areas using the difficulty-to-population ratio (October 2022)

This Spotlight examines recruitment difficulty as a proportion of all employers (called the difficulty-to-population ratio), and how this measure varies across different types of regions.

Retention difficulty in 2021 and 2022 to date (July 2022)

This Spotlight looks at changes in the rate of retention difficulty from 2021 to 2022 to date.

Recruitment difficulty for Truck Drivers (April 2022)

This report examines demand for Truck Drivers, and the difficulty employers have in trying to recruit them. It also reveals the reasons employers gave for their recruitment difficulty, and the impacts that recruitment difficulty for Truck Drivers has had on businesses.

Job status of employers' recent hires (March 2022)

This Spotlight presents results on the job status of people whom employers recently hired, providing insights into the kinds of positions for which jobless people are most likely to get a job. 

Measuring recruitment difficulty (February 2022)

This report clarifies how recruitment difficulty is measured by the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS).

Reason for recruitment by industry and occupation (January 2022)

This report provides further details on the proportion of employers recruiting for new positions and the proportion of employers recruiting to replace staff.

Employers who have retention difficulty (December 2021)

Around 1 in 10 employers say they've had difficulty retaining staff in the past 3 months. This Spotlight provides some further insight into the types of employers that have retention difficulty.

Employers' Greatest Future Concern (September 2021)

Employers are asked what their single greatest future concern is for the next 3 months. The Spotlight from the September 2021 Recruitment Insights Report outlined results from this question.

Employers with staff stood down, on reduced hours or working from home (August 2021)

Questions on employers' staffing arrangements were reintroduced in August 2021 in response to the Delta COVID-19 outbreak. Note that the proportion of employers with staff stood down or on reduced hours is now a regular indicator in the monthly Recruitment Insights Report, which is available here.

Recruitment Experiences and Expectations in the Accommodation and Food Services industry (June 2021)

This report provides a breakdown of key results by industry sub-sector and occupation within the Accommodation and Food Services industry, using data collected from August 2020 to June 2021.

Recruitment Experiences and Expectations in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry (May 2021)

This Spotlight provides a breakdown of key results by sub-sector within the Health Care and Social Assistance industry, using data collected from August 2020 to May 2021. It shows that employers in Residential Care Services have a particularly high rate of recruitment, while recruiting employers in Child Care Services often have recruitment difficulty.

Risks to business staying open (March 2021)

This report highlights the risks to businesses staying open over the next 6 months, as reported in March 2021. At this point in time, business confidence had improved, with 63% of businesses reporting ‘no risks’ to staying open over the next 6 months.