Major job warning ahead of looming deadline: ‘Start now’

Aussies have been warned they have just weeks left to secure a new job before the market starts to wind down. A recruitment expert has urged job seekers to make a move now before things grind to a halt.

Tammie Christofis Ballis, a recruiter and career coach at Realistic Careers, said the job market starts to slow down from mid-November as we get closer to the end of the year. She said this applied across most industries, with the exception of sectors like health, logistics, warehousing and retail.

“It’s because of Christmas. Come mid-November the silly season starts,” Ballis told Yahoo Finance.

“In recruitment land, hiring managers start going on leave, people start going on leave and it slows down the recruitment process.”

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Ballis said hiring usually started to pick back up again when school holidays ended in late January and early February.

“Come January, [it’s] new me, new job and people start resigning. It takes around a month again because people are on holidays for people to start putting those jobs on and for people to resign,” she said.

“So you’ll see a lot of movement late January, early February because there are opportunities available because people are moving around.”

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It comes after SEEK research revealed only half (55 per cent) of Aussie workers were happy at work, leading some Aussies to quit their jobs in pursuit of happiness and purpose.

A poll of more than 4,000 Yahoo Finance readers revealed 44 per cent of workers were unhappy in their current job but couldn’t quit, while 15 per cent of unhappy workers were planning to hand in their resignation.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2 per cent in August, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data found, with the number of employed people growing by 47,500 and the number of unemployed people dropping by 10,000.

Aussies told to make a move now but don’t ‘rage apply’

Ballis said Aussies looking to make a move should “start applying now”.

“Apply with a recruitment platform friendly or applicant tracking system friendly resume that’s updated with your latest experience,” she advised.

While it can be tempting to apply for anything and everything to secure a new role, Ballis said this wasn’t a wise move.

“Don’t just rage apply, strategically apply. Match [your] skills to the job advertisement, most people think that they can do a job but they’re not reading the job ad,” she told Yahoo Finance.

Ballis also recommended people get networking, as well as reach out to their personal network to see if companies had opportunities going.

“Networking is more of a long game, marathon situation. If you go to business meetup groups or your local chamber of commerce, another way to do it is on LinkedIn,” she said.

“Update your LinkedIn and Seek profiles and make sure that they are off private and visible.”

Lastly, Ballis said it can be worth making a list of companies or businesses you want to work with and sign up to their jobs email list.

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