Workers waiting to fill regional roles

MAX Employment is taking steps to remind regional employers that there are willing and able prospective employees available to start work in most industries from today.

Australia’s largest employment services provider applauded findings in the latest Regional Australia Institute’s job vacancy report, which stated that the nation’s regional unemployment rate of 3.8% has already dipped under the 4% mark targeted by the federal government.

This means more regional Australians have found sustainable, ongoing work in 2021.

Significantly though, job vacancies in regional areas remain very high compared to previous years – there were more than 73,000 vacancies across regional Australia in December 2021, representing an increase of 35.7% on the previous year.

MAX Executive General Manager – Employment Services, Fiona Lamb, said that her organisation was dedicated to arranging outcomes that equally benefitted regional job seekers and local businesses.

“With COVID-19 restrictions easing and businesses returning to some kind of pre-pandemic normal, employers are understandably beginning to scale up their operations once again,” said Ms. Lamb.

“The very low unemployment rate is something of a double-edged sword – it’s a positive in that more regional residents are in long-term employment, but it also means that there are fewer candidates for each new job in rural areas.

“With fewer recruits in the workforce pool, we’re encouraging employers to be more open-minded and more creative in the way they recruit staff. Perhaps they consider hiring a person with disability, where they haven’t before – or a mature age worker who has been absent from the workforce for an extended period.”

“There are experienced, enthusiastic people from all walks of life who are looking for work.”

Ms. Lamb said local MAX Employment customer placement consultants are currently assisting regional job seekers to find work.

“We’ve currently got more than 42,000 job seekers on our caseload across regional Australia; people looking for work across dozens of industries,” Ms. Lamb said. 

“While age, skillset, education level, and relevant industry experience remain the key determining factors for employers, there is a broader pool of talent that can make valuable contributions to your business.

I would encourage employers who are struggling to find people to work with employment services providers – who through working with employers to understand the role and the right fit, creates a high chance we have someone who could fill their role.”