National unemployment rate and demand for talent at the local level

Across the nation 14,600 new jobs were created in August, and unemployment rate hits a low figure of 4.1%. 

While encouraging, national figures matter little (or have no relevance) to local employers. Take the case of vacancies in the IT sector (see graph).  Queensland employers are least perturbed by talks of a dip in demand for IT professionals nationally. Meanwhile, companies in WA are burdened by a jobless rate dropping to a low 2.8%. 

Recruitment is inherently local. The factors that drives the supply and demand of talent differs from state to state, region to region, cities to cities, and across industry sectors and professions. The point is, talking in national terms does little to plan and address the challenges of talent acquisition at the local level. 

Labour statistics Links

• ABS data on employment 
• Regional labour force data
• DEEWR indicator of employment
• Job vacancies report