I can only conclude those people don't read the paper or watch the news much. Or perhaps they do, and they fail to make the connection with their own jobs and careers? Anyhow here are the major factors influencing (depressing) the job market at the moment:
- You've got the European debt crisis and the fiscal cliff taking all the confidence out of the private sector
- You've got the Aussie dollar at $1+US, which makes offshoring a massive cost saver
- You've got the federal government trying to minimize spend to hit a surplus number
- You're coming into a time of year where the market starts to soften up. And I think that soft phase will be longer for the aforementioned reasons
- You've got a couple of state goverments (esp. QLD) swinging the axe hard
- A lot of the big employers are also cutting - Telstra, CBA, Westpac, Woolies, Optus, IBM, Macquarie Bank, Vodafone – they've all let significant numbers of people (be they contractors or perm staff) go in recent months and have a low appetite to hire
It's all forming a bit of a perfect storm for the local market. Take a look at today's ANZ job advertisement numbers. Long story short - 17% down on this time last year. Bleak.
And for those in the IT sector, the news is even worse. The analysis from ZDnet's Phil Dobbie shows that the IT jobs now comprise only 20% of the total job market, down from 25% five years ago. So between that and the drop in total job numbers, you come up with a real drop of 40% in the numbers of new IT roles as compared to 5 years ago. (Dobbie goes on to suggest this reflects significant structural reform in the local IT industry, something I tend to agree with).
People need to know that changes like this have an impact on them and their careers. This stuff is on our doorstep. The fact that you are good at what you do, earn x dollars per day on your last contract, or had no problems landing a role a few years back is somewhat irrelevant because the rules of the game have changed.
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