Casual work booms, full-time jobs fall as economy squeezed

Workplace platform Employment Hero’s latest jobs report shows that employment growth stalled in April as employers face continued economic pressure and rising operating costs.

The report also shows that employment growth fell slightly to -0.1 percent month-on-month in April, ending a three-month streak of workforce expansion.

At the same time, informal work continued to rise, growing 11 percent year-on-year.

That is more than double the growth in full-time employment and is considerably higher than that of part-time employment.

The report is based on aggregated payroll data from more than 23,000 companies and 1.7 million employees.

Employment Hero Asia-Pacific managing director James Keene said the data showed a labor market that remained broadly resilient, but companies were becoming much more cautious in their approach to hiring.

“Companies are still hiring, but the pace of growth has clearly slowed as employers have become more cautious about expanding their workforces,” Keene said.

“After several years of rapid hiring and intense competition for employees, many companies are now focused on protecting margins, carefully managing costs and building more flexibility into their staffing models.

“The continued strength of temporary jobs underlines that employers still need access to talent, but increasingly want the ability to scale their workforce up or down depending on demand.”

Despite the monthly stagnation, annual employment growth remains strong at 8.4 percent annually, the company said.

Meanwhile, wages showed the strongest monthly increase in more than six months, rising 1.6 percent month on month, the survey showed.

The average hourly wage nationally is now $46.30.

Keene said companies are balancing the need to attract and retain employees with increasing pressure on profitability.

“Wages continue to rise, which is positive news for workers, but it also adds to the cost pressures that many companies are already experiencing.”

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