Service jobs — health, retail and hospitality — growing at fastest rate in a decade

SERVICE jobs — including those in health, retail and hospitality are growing at their fastest rate in more than a decade.
According to Ai Group’s Performance of Services Index (PSI) for May, employment increased 3.5 index points to 58.0, recording well above the 50-point level separating contraction and expansion and the fastest monthly improvement since December 2004.

Ai Group chief economist Julie Toth said employment in the services sectors — which includes health, retail and wholesale trade, hospitality, recreation, property, business, finance, communication and transport services — was positive.
“It hadn’t been showing any employment growth earlier this year but it did in May,” she said.
“We are hoping this is the start of a growth phase, not a blip (as) services as a group accounts for about 75 per cent of all (private) employment.”
Ms Toth said the data showed particularly good employment prospects in health and welfare, which experienced overall activity expansion for its seventh consecutive month.
Cytogenetic scientist Jessica Lee started her graduate role with Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology in May.
“When they were advertising this position, they were looking for three new graduates to start,” she said.
“They definitely have the work volume here to support graduate students but there was a high number of people who applied as well.”
Ms Lee recommended health service graduates begin applying for work well before finishing their studies.
“I started applying for jobs in the hopes that by the time I graduated my name would have come across desks a few times,” she said.
“I started the groundwork to getting a job after graduation a year before graduation.”
Nurses and community care workers in demand ... Employment Office managing director Tudor Marsden-Huggins. Picture: Tim Marsden / News Corp Australia

Employment Office managing director Tudor Marsden-Huggins said there had been an increase in hiring across the retail and health care sectors in the last 12 months.
“In particular we are seeing a lot of new positions advertised for nurses and community care workers,” he said.
“The ongoing casualisation of the workforce in these high growth sectors has increased the level of hiring activity taking place.
“Low interest rates are also contributing to increase consumer spending and the easing of small business budgets which has undoubtedly had a positive impact on new retail hires.”
Department of Employment figures forecasted 63,300 new jobs would be created for medical practitioners and nurses, and 33,700 for health diagnostic and therapy professionals across Australia in the five years to November, 2019.
Ms Toth said retail was also picking up in the employment stakes, as were financial services and personal and recreational services.
An additional 52,400 hospitality, retail and service managers, and 56,900 business, finance and human resource professionals are forecast to be employed by the end of 2019.
Overall, Ms Toth said the services industry recorded a PSI index just below 50, denoting slight contraction (49.6 points).
The National Australia Bank Monthly Business Survey for May, however, revealed increasing confidence in services sectors.
General business sentiment jumped from +3 to +7 index points from April to May, Australia’s highest level of business confidence since August 2014, with much of that confidence attributed to services.
The NAB report noted significantly higher confidence in retail and wholesale sectors following the Government’s Small Business Package, as well as in finance, business and property services sectors.
Australia’s strongest employment demand was in finance, property and business services, which recorded +9 index points.