Job Numbers On A Grow-slow
The Age
Saturday October 11, 2003
Statistics released by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) predict a slowdown in job growth over the next decade.
The current growth rate is almost 3 per cent per annum but is expected to drop to 1.1 per cent by 2012.
ANTA says white-collar employment overtook the blue-collar outlook in 2001 and that the trend will continue, with the number of legal, accounting, finance, marketing, property and business service jobs expected to grow at a faster rate than the national average.
Some of the expected employment trends include: Agri-food: a continuation of the relative decline in its share of employment. Resources: employment may grow in oil and gas extraction and coal mining, but metal ore jobs may slip as a share of total jobs.Manufacturing: all sectors expected to decline in job share.Energy and connectivity services: modest decline.Transport and logistics: below-average growth.Tourism, retail and recreational services: growth above the economy-wide average.Business and innovation: expected to continue to generate a substantial number of jobs, especially in finance and insurance.Construction and property services: around or just above the average.Government, community services and health: strong growth, especially in health care and community services.
HR staff get the axe
The massive axe swinging through the Goodman Fielder food group has inflicted some heavy casualties on the human resources division. Up to 200 of the 240 people in the company's HR group are understood to have gone under an aggressive company-wide cost-cutting exercise by its new owners, Burns Philp, and its controlling shareholder, New Zealander Graeme Hart. This brings the number of lay-offs at Goodman to more than 2000 this year. Goodman's media spokesperson was on holiday and its head of human resources, Kim Lee, did not return phone calls.
Hello - Bangladesh?
General Electric must be starting to feel unloved. The giant manufacturer wants to expand its Melbourne call centre and create 1500 new jobs over five years. Sounding good so far?
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks says ``yes", but the City of Yarra says ``no", because of green belt and parking problems. GE responds with the unveiled threat: get your act together or we'll move to Brisbane.
Enter Cardinia Shire on the Eastern metropolitan fringe, where mayor Kate Lempriere says she would love a call centre and has all the land and parking spots GE needs.
Yarra mayor Greg Barber's response? ``They can up stumps and move to Bangladesh as far as I'm concerned," he is quoted in a local newspaper.
No word yet from Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, who doubtless would love the 1500 jobs.
A beautiful thing
The Australian beauty business has never smelled so sweet. Our spa resort industry is the world's fastest-growing, according to Singapore-based industry analyst Intelligent Spas. Given the record number of graduates from local beauty therapy ``colleges", the figures point to strong employment prospects in the spa and beauty industry.
Ian Wilson, a director of Hostec Consulting, which recruits spa management, says the demand for skilled staff has accelerated in the past two years.
``It's like a slingshot effect because of the boom in the spa industry," he says.
Many of the spas, even in exotic locations like Queensland's far north, are looking for staff.
Mr Wilson's advice: ``Decide where you want to live and the best way to get a job is to approach them direct."
The number of new spas around the world is growing each year, and between 1990 and 2001 the resort-hotel spa segment expanded faster than any other - by 143 per cent.
Already the local beauty industry has turned out two young multimillionaires: Natalie Bloom, founder of Bloom Cosmetics, who at 32 is worth $17 million, and Jo Horgan, 34, the founder of Mecca Cosmetics, who is worth $12 million.
Then there's Imelda Roche, who started out with a franchise to sell the American Nutrimetics beauty products door-to-door and made such a success of it that she bought out the parent company. In 1997 she sold out to the Sara Lee, and the BRW Rich 200 list puts her fortune at $310 million.
Tech jobs rebound
Australia's information technology sector posted an 8.9 per cent increase in job advertisements in September, indicating that Australia's buoyant economy has prompted companies to start spending on IT&T.
The Olivier Recruitment Group recorded a 5.5 per cent seasonally adjusted increase in job vacancies in September, with 17 of the 21 job sectors experiencing growth. Lending weight to the boom speculation, specialist IT recruiters Peoplebank have acquired Adelaide firm Gambit Recruiting.
Wrong kind of interests
Have you ever wondered whether anyone reads your ``other interests" on your job application? A UK report shows that some job seekers ignore the section but others seem to reveal an unemployment wish with their answers. The survey highlights three responses guaranteed to get the thumbs down from employers: ``No interests", ``Drinking" and ``Keeping my boyfriend happy".
Overtime is bad for you
Staying late in the office can be bad for your health. You're too tired to go to the gym, it's too late to socialise, you grab a take-away on the way home and eat it in front of the television. When you constantly work overtime you even risk putting on weight. That's the conclusion of the global employment agency OfficeTeam after taking a close look at the stress faced by senior PAs and found the biggest impact of overtime was on eating habits, lack of exercise and giving up on a social life.
The survey found that 71 per cent of senior PAs are working longer hours and as a result are skipping the gym and sport and eating more takeaway food. All complained that they were missing out on seeing friends.
Learning from failure
Negative feedback does have a positive side. When it comes to landing the job, every insight helps. In a British survey of 1500 people who were quizzed about why they failed an interview and missed out on a new job, they listed the reasons why. Here's what they said.
• Arriving late because of getting lost - 57 per cent.
• Getting caught telling lies on a CV - 41 per cent.
• Calling the interviewer by the wrong name - 32 per cent.
• Getting the dress code v-e-r-y wrong.
• Giving the impression this is not the ideal job.
Work Words
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work . . . I want to achieve it through not dying." -- WOODY ALLEN
Top job
A plague upon thee
Funny, but you can never find Moses and Isaac when you need them. Which might be one of the reasons that the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is looking for a head locust tamer. The job description is ``director, Australian Plague Locust Commission", a title guaranteed to start conversations. The department's Dr Graeme Hamilton, chief plant protection officer, says the successful applicant will be a good all-rounder who could be directing field operations one day and addressing a Senate committee the next. The job is based in Canberra and is available for up to three years. It pays up to $100,000 a year. Contact Dr Hamilton on (02) 6271 6534.
In the news
Landing a big fish
Who: Keith Saunders, WA Fisheries Officer.
What: do you do? Enforce the Fisheries Act within our waters. We are directed to a suspicious target by Coastwatch and then have to work out who they are and what they are doing. We can board the boat, usually in association with the customs marine unit or the navy.
Salary: Less than $50,000.
How long in the job? Seven years.
Background? I have degrees in environmental marine management and aquaculture as well as commercial skippers' tickets.
Career high? Standing on a glacier on Heard Island overlooking a calm, soft sea.
Career low? When politics get in the way of what is right.
The perks? Visiting the Kerguelen Islands is like catching up with old mates. They cook and we bring the wine.
Where next? Investigating the Viarsa (an alleged Patagonian toothfish poaching ship). We don't just seek out the pirate vessels, (we) also investigate and prosecute.
Most memorable quote? ``Remember that if lives are on the line, they're only f---ing fish."
Job you most covet? Writing a film about the Viarsa chase. -- Sharon Lindsay
Colleagues who climb
Team work
A new line - pun intended - in corporate team building is under way. If you want to learn the ropes (that's enough puns for now), you'll find all the challenges you need at indoor climbing centres. The sport is attracting a growing number of corporate groups who scale 15-metre walls, clutch on to minuscule finger-holds and place their trust in their colleagues below.
``Plenty of adrenaline, no real danger," says Brodie Floyed, head of the Hardrock Climbing Company's corporate training division.
``Although the climbers might be four storeys up the wall, they're firmly harnessed and belayed. If they slip, they can come down slowly and quite gracefully."
Corporate sessions start at $27.50 per person. Groups range from 10 to 60 participants and focus on communication, participation, leadership, problem solving, managing teams and other workplace disciplines.
``We get all ages, shapes and sizes," says Ms Floyed. ``It's particularly useful where new work teams are involved - (it) shows who has leadership qualities and who has a cool manner in a crisis."
Want to climb to the top? Visit www.hardrock.com.au
© 2003 The Age
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