Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: How businesses can make the most of an unusual job market

Despite record unemployment, new hiring trends from Workday suggest Australian companies have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to revitalise their workforces with top talent. 

Each year, Workday processes millions of job-related data points from the companies that use our recruiting tools. For the first time in Australia, we’re making public the trends revealed by this anonymised data. The 2023 data tells us that Australia’s job market is in the midst of a rare situation.  

When unemployment is low, economists expect increased competition for talent. According to conventional wisdom, with fewer people actively looking for jobs, employers find it more challenging to fill vacancies and may even need to offer higher wages to attract employees. 

As anyone looking for work will tell you – this is not what’s happening.

In fact, more Australian job applicants are fighting for fewer open positions.