Widespread unhappiness at returning to work after Christmas helped drive a record 2.43M unique browsers^ to seek.com.au in January, suggesting that employers could be in for another year of high staff churn.
The record traffic figures represent the equivalent of more than 23% of the Australian labour force^^, and are significant given Australiaís continuing low unemployment.
Also, not only are there more individual job seekers coming to SEEK, but they are staying longer. Seven out of every 10 minutes that job seekers spent on the three top job sites were spent on SEEK.
Joe Powell, Director of Sales, said that January is traditionally a busy month for job seeking, but this year sets a new benchmark.
ìWith unemployment at such low levels we can safely say that there are plenty of people out there who already have a job but believe there is somewhere better for them to be.
ìWe conducted a survey to find out what was motivating job seeker behaviour. Of the people who visited SEEK last month, 44 said that they are unhappy in their current role. A further 28% are just browsing for a new opportunity.
ìPetrol prices are also having an impact, with 17% of respondents stating that they are looking for a new job that is closer to home. Just 9% of job seekers are looking for a more senior position.
ìThe average Australian job seeker is not after a promotion, just a job that makes them happy that is not too far from homeî, he said.
^ January 2007 Nielsen NetRatings
^^ Employed persons numbered 10,337,300 in December 2006 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Record Numbers Seeking Work
2.43M people search on seek.com.au in January
