Big employers dominate jobs market in post-COVID Australia

Job advertisements captured in the LinkUp data grew strongly in 2022. Much of the 11 per cent growth last year was led by hiring in the state governments of NSW, WA and Queensland.

Jobseekers were also likely to be rewarded if applying to mining, finance and retail companies, reflecting the strong outlook for the commodity sector globally, a rise in home lending, and pent-up demand for retail goods after the reopening of the Australian economy.

Setting aside the state governments, the information and technology industry saw a relatively slow pace of jobs growth in 2022 despite advances in technologies and demand for their associated skills.

The top 20 employers (averaging around 3000 job advertisements a year each) dominated the hiring process, with 35 per cent of all job advertisements outside state governments.

Notable companies in this group are the mining giants Glencore and Rio Tinto, Coles and Woolworths, and the top five commercial banks (CBA, Westpac, NAB, ANZ and Macquarie). The retail chains Harvey Norman and Just Group were also notable job advertisers.

In line with the re-opening of the economy, food, accommodation and hospitality providers such as Compass Group, Accor and Marriott Group were also significant job advertisers last year.

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Hiring was strong in the retail industry; the big supermarkets Coles and Woolworths represented around half of the jobs advertised in that industry, with mid-range-sized stores and internet retail companies most of the balance in line with the re-opening of the economy.

The technology and data-related companies Accenture, Amazon and InfoSystems filled out much of the top list.

“The data for 2022 provide a fascinating indication of how the economy is coming out of the COVID period,” says Professor David Orsmond of Macquarie University’s Department of Economics.

“They show that hiring last year was dominated by the big employers, both at state government and the top private companies. Setting aside hiring by the state governments, 35 per cent of hires were by the top 20 private companies alone compared with only 15 per cent for the next 30 large employers.”

The economy has boomed, says Orsmond, as households have all at the same time tried to make up for consumption that was deferred during the COVID lockdowns, spending some of the $300 billion in excess savings accumulated during that period. Employers across all industries have struggled to hire labour to keep up with this resurgent demand, and, at around 3½ per cent, the unemployment rate is now the lowest in 50 years.

Future research envisages a deep dive into the exact nature of the jobs that specific companies are seeking.

Orsmond says that as the researchers update these new data series, “it will be interesting to see how these trends change as different companies in the economy respond in different ways to the rise in interest rates and the slowing of household demand that is expected during 2023 and beyond”.

Professor David Orsmond, Associate Professor Mauricio Marrone, and Dr Ali Amrollahi are part of a LinkUp/Macquarie Business School collaboration: The New Macquarie University Data Series on Labour Market Trends in a Post-COVID World.