More jobs and salaries shine on Hays survey landscape



Employee salaries will stabilise and increase, employers will look forward to recruiting more staff in permanent, temporary and contract roles; predicts the latest Hays Salary Guide 2010.

Painting an optimistic picture for the Australian job hunters over the next year, the survey includes recruiting trends and average salaries for over 900 job functions across 20 sectors and 12 locations within Australia and New Zealand.

The general market review of all industries shows an impressive 47 per cent employers expecting to increase salaries between three and six per cent in their next performance evaluation. A decent 8 per cent of employers will offer a raise between 6 to 10 per cent while 2 percent employers will go over the 10 per cent mark.

Recovering from last year’s hiring freeze, budget cuts and only a 21 per cent staff increase, 45 per cent employers expect to increase their permanent staff numbers this year. Temporary and contract staff will benefit as well, with 22 per cent employers hiring temporary workers, compared to 14 per cent last year.

Zeroing on specifics, three industries crossed the 50 per cent mark with employers offering a salary increase between 3 to 6 per cent: Mining & Resources (54 per cent), Professional Services (54 per cent) and Public Sector (51 per cent).

Additionally, 15 per cent more employers from Mining & Resources would offer between 6 and 10 per cent raise, and 3 per cent above 10 per cent.  Among the Professional Services industry employers, 8 per cent will increase between 6 and 10 per cent salaries while 2 per cent will increase over 10 per cent.

As far as hiring goes, engineering staff lead the way in both permanent and temporary roles with a solid 60 per cent of engineering departments expecting to increase their permanent headcount and 37 per cent, their use of temporary workers.

Employers predict increasing permanent staff employees in purchasing (57 per cent), operations (50 per cent) and human resources (48 per cent) departments. In temporary staff, the sales department expects an increase of 29 per cent while marketing, operations and information technology expect 25 per cent.

All in all, it’s sunshine for employees as a heartening 67 per cent employers believe that the economy will strengthen in the coming six to 12 months, compared to just 6 per cent last year.

Employees looking to resign, think before you take the plunge—39 per cent employers admitted using counter offers to retain resigning staff by offering them more money.

Though optimistic about the Hays salary survey, Nigel Heap, Managing Director of Hays Asia Pacific, lends a word of caution: “Jobseekers shouldn’t expect an automatic or hefty salary increase. We still advise jobseekers to focus on finding a role that will add to your suite of skills and will offer opportunity with the right organisation.

“Moving roles at this stage can provide the opportunity to join an up-and-coming employer or a company that is emerging from the GFC in a strong position. But don’t price yourself out of contention with over-inflated salary expectations.

“If you are realistic in your expectations, show how you can add value and take the advice of a recruiting expert, a salary increase is likely to follow over the coming year in line with the market’s renewed optimism.”

The Hays Salary Guide is available to download from the Hays website:

Australia: www.hays.com.au/salary
New Zealand: www.hays.net.nz/salary

You will have to register your details to receive a free copy of the salary survey for your industry.

CareerOne.com.au, May 31, 2010.