Confidence …..where art thou?

The Hudson Report discloses that “Confidence amongst Australian employers has risen for the first time in 18 months.” This is welcome news, as there had been five (5) consecutive quarters of falling sentiment.

In addition, the Hudson Report indicated that there was “a clear shift away from reducing headcount towards holding current employee levels steady.”

In fact the report goes on to state that “the proportion of employers intending to reduce their permanent employee levels decreased” over the last quarter.

Added to this is that employers intending to hold their current employee levels steady increased, as well as employers looking to increase headcount over the same quarter.

The good news, and we always need it, is that confidence amongst Australian employers has risen for the first time in 18 months. The report goes on to comment that the “Intense cost reduction activities appear to be stabilising and employers shifting their focus toward their long-term business strategies.”

A challenging question for us all is whether the reports findings are in accord with our own thoughts, and importantly, actions.

Oh, and by the way, it appears that the National permanent employment expectations over July — September 2009 is around 5% for the Not for Profit sector as compared with all industries of around 7%.

Confidence where art thou?

Damien Smith
Managing Director