Executive Job Demand Rebounds Post-Australian Election
Executive job demand recovers in Australia as election uncertainty is resolved
Demand is now driven by the business sector not just more public servants
Productivity is now being addressed but will the unions hijack it?
Executive Job Market Rebounds Post-Election
The executive job market has turned up as election uncertainty is now resolved,
according to the E.L. Executive Demand Index. The E.L Index rose 5 per cent in May but continues to bump along the bottom of its recent range.
Private Sector Drives Demand While Government Remains in Caretaker Mode
Mr Grant Montgomery, Managing Director of E.L Consult, a leading executive search firm that has
researched and published the E.L. Executive Demand Index for over 30 years, said:
“As we approach the end of the financial year it appears that jobs for executive-level employees are rising again.”
“This is good news, particularly since the increases were across most groups and are not driven by government sector demand due to the federal government being in caretaker mode.”
“Hopefully the government will not attempt to catch up in coming months by employing ever more public servants which is always a a possibility given their profligacy with taxpayer money.”
Election Outcome Brings Hiring Confidence
“Of course, the re-election of the government with a stable majority has a lot to do with the rise in
business sector jobs as employers make decisions without the uncertainty that an election campaign always brings.”
Productivity Reform: Rhetoric vs. Reality
“What’s more, the newly elected government is making positive noises about tackling the productivity issue that has been ruining the local economy over the last few years.”
“Whether the new government will actually do anything except hold meetings is yet to be seen,
particularly since the union movement, now more influential than ever, sees any productivity action as their nemesis and an insult to their members work ethics.”
Smarter Work, Not Longer Hours
Australians already work some of the longest hours in the first world. Improved productivity is not about working longer hours per se, but working smarter, taking advantage of the smarts this country can offer.
“Better productivity is also about allowing entrepreneurs the flexibility to innovate and use their drive, energy and passion to build their businesses wherever they are in the economy.”
Red Tape and Public Sector Hurdles
“It’s only by driving productivity at both the capital and labour levels that Australians can continue to enjoy our current quality of life.”
“If business needs to jump over high government walls staffed by an overstuffed public service
needing to justify its existence, then this is the absolute opposite of what is required to boost
productivity.”
Government Reform Talk vs. Union Influence
“The Federal Government has talked about productivity being its number one priority in this term. It’s talked the talk. Walking the walk given its association with the union movement and its shyness so far in making meaningful reform is going to be interesting to observe,” Mr Montgomery said.
Superannuation and Investment Regulation Concerns
“Further changes to superannuation laws were also likely to raise fears that investment regulations will continue to be shifted: “Taxing unrealised capital gains is not new. States have been doing it for years through punitive Land Taxes but taxing unrealised gains on retirement savings is another thing again as it will change the whole capital investment market.
“But the government spending in its first term was such that it needs money so why not raid people savings. What can go wrong?”
State Leaders: WA, QLD and ACT
Most states and territories rose, led by Western Australia and Queensland. Among the smaller regions the ACT recorded the strongest result (despite the government caretaker period) thanks to improvements in Financial, Engineering and Management employment.
Sector Performance: IT Leads, Marketing Declines
Among the sectors, Marketing sector was the only one to record a negative result with an overall–10 per cent movement.
The Information Technology sector was the strongest, with government and private sector advertising rising. In a tight race for second, Engineering was slightly ahead of the Financial and Management sectors.
Call Grant Montgomery on +612 9221 6688 or 0414926688 for further details
May 2025 Statistics
May 2025 National Index
May 2025 National Index: 477
Same period last year (May 2024): 557
Percentage change over last month: 5%
National Summary
Despite continuing uncertainty in the global eco-political environment, the executive job market has had a short-term uptick as the election uncertainty is resolved. The Index rose 5 per cent in May but continues to bump along the bottom of its recent range
National Demand for Executives Over Last Seven Years
The executive demand long-term trend is being affected by considerable recent month to month falls. It is now at its lowest point since October 2021 at the height of the COVID period.
State by State Comparison
Most states and territories rose, led by Western Australia and Queensland. Among the smaller regions the ACT recorded the strongest result (despite the government being in caretaker mode) thanks to improvements in Finance, Engineering and Management employment.
Executive Groups
Finance, Engineering Management and IT demand all flourished. Marketing was the only one to fall back. There were significant increases in the financial sector for New South Wales government positions. Other significant gains included the Tasmanian and ACT
May 2025 E.L Finance Index
May 2025 E.L Finance Index: 770
Same period last year (May 2024): 838
Percentage change over last month: 9%
The Financial index rose 9 per cent in May, but continues to be on the slow decline that began in earnest in February 2023.
The gains were relatively broad across the regions, with only Tasmania recording a negative result.
The ACT continues to perform strongly in this space, underpinned by thriving property/construction markets that in their turn are underpinned by rising government employment trends.
Other regions to gain include New South Wales and Western Australia.
May 2025 E.L Engineering Index
May 2025 E.L Engineering Index: 225
Same period last year (May 2024): 277
Percentage change over last month: 10%
Engineering was the second most successful sector in May, recovering somewhat from the significant losses experienced earlier in the year in gaining 10 per cent.
However, similarly to Finance, this sector has been trending downward now for over two years, losing some of the gains which, perhaps surprisingly given the “stay at home” orders of the time, the sector made during the Covid era of 2021/ 2022.
The ACT and Victoria were especially strong while Queensland was the only state to be pegged back.
May 2025 E.L Management Index
May 2025 E.L Management Index: 662
Same period last year (May 2024): 804
Percentage change over last month: 6%
The Management sector recorded a 6 per cent improvement in May, retrieving some of the declines it had made since January.
After a tick-up in the third quarter of 2024, the sector has shown almost universal declines amid the expectations of a slowing economy, the upcoming federal election and economic/ political uncertainty offshore.
As has been the case in other sectors, ACT was far and away the strongest sector as the business sector ignored the election and drove on employing executives. ACT web-based business hiring in this sector rose some 65 per cent over the prior month.
Government sector demand in the sector rose in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
May 2025 E.L Information Technology Index
May 2025 E.L Information Technology Index: 175
Same period last year (May 2024): 216
Percentage change over last month: 30%
Information Technology was the strongest sector in May, gaining 30 per cent and creating a visual hockey stick in its chart given its recent losses. However, it should be noted that this sector is known for its volatility.
Although there are no major trends that can so far be discerned from this significant increase, it is interesting to note that for the first instance in some time that government sector demand fell, while business sector demand significantly expanded.
There were a number of strong regions during the month, but New South Wales continues to be the place to be if searching for an IT-related executive position. Demand in New South Wales gained 19 per cent in May to cement its position as the largest supplier of executive jobs for those with executive-level IT skills.
May 2025 E.L Marketing Index
May 2025 E.L Marketing Index: 489
Same period last year (May 2024): 553
Percentage change over last month: -10%
Although Marketing was the only sector to record a negative result in May (-10 per cent), it continues to outperform other sectors by having remained in its current trading range over the past three years.
Web-based business sector employment advertising continues to be the mainstay of the sector, indicating that the government sector may, at least for the moment, be scaling back on its hiring intentions (or they are full).
Performance was mixed across the country – Victoria and Western Australia were higher, while all other regions were lower.
About the E.L Index
The E.L Index is a comprehensive monthly analysis of employment trends at executive level. An Australian analysis is produced in Sydney and an Asian analysis in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The E.L Index has shown by two separate University studies to correlate strongly with general economic and business trends. It is featured by most of the major news services and is closely followed by government and central bank analysts.
The E.L Index is actually a combined national index of all executive demand made up of five separate indices; E.L Finance Index, E.L IT Index, E.L Management Index, E.L Marketing Index and the E.L Engineering Index.
The National and specific career group Indexes are shown as relative indexes recording the monthly demand activity for executive positions in the current month against the demand in a historical base period which is normalised to 100. The historical base period used was the average of the last quarter of 1992 which research showed to be the bottom of that downturn.
By averaging to a historical base period the comparison of, say, June 1994 to June 2000 is meaningful, giving a clean, easily understood appreciation of changing investment and economic trends without seasonal obscurity.
The E.L Index utilises data from both print and internet sources and is the only employment index to do so.
The print data is collected from the major employment paper in each state. National papers are not used to avoid “doubling up”. Internet data is not collected off the web sites which can be subject to some error but instead collected through raw data provided by the ISP themselves. Print data has over 15 years of historical data and the internet more than 6 years.
Why Executive Demand is a Primary Lead Indicator?
It is often claimed that unemployment figures and broad-based job vacancy surveys do not give a fair impression of what is occurring in executive ranks. The E.L Index addresses this and has some interesting correlative and predictive qualities. Such as:
- Employment of management usually precedes the employment of skilled and unskilled workers.
- Employment of engineering executives precedes major capital investment.
- The division between various management sectors gives an indication of which sectors of the economy are experiencing growth or decline.
- Compares month by month changes in the public and private sector as well as monitoring government expenditure patterns.
- Makes regional comparisons after allowing for population differences.
- It shows a ‘rate of change’ and can therefore be realistically compared to general economic and employment growth unlike some surveys that report absolute numbers.
- Core data is collected on an actual expenditure of business and government, not on a respondent’s opinion or confidence level.
