Current Trends In Labor Market: Australian Accounting Industry

This report is prepared for the international students who have graduates and looking for job and start career as an accountant in the Australian Labor Market. Readers can find the information about the trend of the job market and get specific information about financial and insurance service industry, health care and social assistance industry and education and training industry. Readers will also find information about the challenges international student will face in their student life and the way to overcome those difficulties. Lastly there are discussion about some unique and creative strategic plan to prepare for a successful job search by expanding network, prepare resume, cover letter and selective criteria perfectly and apply for job selectively to make the job search successful.

Introduction

This report has prepared to investigate the trend of Australian Labor Market, employment rate and unemployment rate at nationwide and state basis and some key industries for job seeking purpose. This report also gives a forecast about the possibility of getting job in those specific industry. Based on the research and finding there will be proposed some unique and efficient strategic plan so that an international student can find this report helpful in the pursuit of his career in Accounting or any other suitable workplace. Additionally this report also discussed about some challenges those are faced by international student and how those difficulties can be overcome.

Research and Analysis

This part will demonstrate the trends of Australian labor market at national and state basis. Alongside it will deliver very close information about the current trends and career opportunity in accounting industry.

National and State Employment Trends

According to Australian labor market update, the major employment increases happened in Queensland (4. 6%), Australian Capital Territory (4. 1%), and New South Wales (3. 7%). The highest escalation of employment happened in healthcare and social assistance (up 127600), construction (up 99100), retail trade (up 68100) and education and training (55500), on the other hand public administration furthermore safety sector had the largest drop of employment (down 81200). The growth rate in Arts and recreation services and power gas water and waste service showed remarkable improvement with growth rate of 17. 6% and 10. 6%.

Unemployment Rate

In February 2018 the unemployment rate of Australia dropped recently by 0. 3% to 5. 5% country wide which was 5. 8% last year of February. Most of these decrease of unemployment rate happened in South Australia (6. 7% to 6. 0%), Victoria (6. 0% to 5. 5%), Queensland (6. 3% to 6. 0%) and New South Wales (5. 0% to 4. 9%) and this rate expanded in Northern Territory (3. 3% to 4. 1%), ACT (3. 8% to 4. 1%) and Tasmania (5. 8% to 6. 0%). This unemployment rate most shockingly increase in Western Australia (6. 2%) in Queensland, SA and Tasmania was 6. 0% in each and the minimum was only NT (4. 0%).

Employment Trends in Accounting Industry

The job opportunity for accountants was weak marginally in 2017-18. Managers filled some beginner level accountant position with very small number of fresh graduate of accounting, according to them they have enough applicant like 14. 6 suitable candidate for a single vacancy. That means accounting industry already have enough candidates. The main reasons behind this unemployment in accounting industry is that candidates are inexperienced and they are inadmissible in the workplace for the lack of their interpersonal skills, communication skill, whereas this industry had enough applicant who are with two year or more working experience vacancy (Australian Government- Jobs and Small Business, 2018). Over the five years the quantity of accountants is growing, statistics showing that the number will be 189100 to 202100 within 2017 to 2011 time period and in the mean while almost 86000 opportunity will create because the worker might switch or leave their work.

The best part of career in Accounting is that it’s a huge occupation and the opportunity is also enormous. The unemployment rate in 2017 was not high because almost each and every industry have workplace for accountant like finance and insurance services, scientific and technical services, public administration and safety services, in all sector have demand for qualified accountant. The work pressure is higher in this occupation as well as the payment is also higher from other occupation for example almost 80% accountant jobs are full time whereas only 68. 4% jobs are full time in other careers and a full time employee earn $1400 per week but employee in other career earn $1260 per week.

Opportunities in Accounting Industry

As I am graduating from accounting and finance background, my first choice to start my career will be in finance and insurance services industry. According to Job outlook, all financial institutions like commercial banks, insurance companies, audit firms, finance rokers, taxation and superannuation funds need qualified accountant and most of the jobs are full time and part time work is very rare in this industry for accountant besides, job locations are in mostly Sydney and Melbourne, two busiest cities in Australia. Most of the employee in this field required a university degree but to pursue in the pathway of career does not need to have degree. From Job outlook it is clear that accountants have great demand in Professional, Scientific and Technical services (48. 5%), in Financial and insurance Services (10. 3%), in Public Administration and Safety (5. 5%) in Manufacturing industry (5%) and in other industries altogether (30. 7%). Additionally in New South Wales and Victoria has the most of the occupation for accountants in respect of 39. 3% and 27. 6% of all other occupations.

Opportunities in Healthcare and Social Assistance Industry and Education and Training Industry

Alongside of the financial and insurances services I am interested to get employed in the health care and social assistance service industry. Because more than one and half million people is employed in this industry and it has a great potential of growth in future five years than any other industry. As health care and social assistance is the biggest and quickest industry, many wellbeing administration like childcare, aged care, dental care, ambulance administration covered by this industry. As an accountant my assumption there will be more need of qualified accountants as office manager’s responsibility is to control and maintain office resources efficiently. The quantity of office mangers dropped in the recent years but according to Job outlook in the following five years this number will increase from 121500 to 126400 within 2017 to 2022 time period not only that forecast says there will be around 80000 vacancies over these five years. Another additional industry I am interested about is education and training industry. University, College, School, Tafe and many training schools are part of this industry. In this industry being employed as a bookkeeper or an accountant and do budgeting and keep record in the account book of economic transaction event and maintain an accounting system inside the institution can be a good start for any candidate with accounting degree. According to Job Outlook an accountant have to check income of the business and cash flow as well as credit ratio, create annual budget for financial year, budget of expenditure, and create financial report, monitoring the activities of the business, all these task needs specific skill and knowledge about accounting. According to Job Outlook the quantity of bookkeepers or accountants will drop from 107700 to 104300 by 2017 to 2022, over the five years of time period. There is possibilities of new vacancies around 39000 employment over this time period.

Three Creative Job Seeking Strategies

Different types of job is suitable for different person. Getting a suitable job for any individual person is not very easy. It needs to put a lot of extra effort to get a dream job. Now if any person work in a place where they cannot show their passion they will become frustrated in future and lost his spirit with workloads. To get the best suited job for one person people can use some unique strategies, these strategies can be very helpful to get work in the commercial bank or in the account department of any school, college or university or as an office manager of any child care, aged care or hospitals, there are three strategies given below:

• Don’t apply in every job but choose based on the industry: At the start of job seeking process every person should choose the industry first that where they are belong and not to apply for every job they come across. Every person have unique dream to be someone in life. In the way of starting career every individual person should find out their passion first. Some people like to help other people some like to dance and sing, some like to travel and adventure, some like to cook. All these people can find their dream workplace even if there university degree is bit different. Suppose I am graduated from masters of professional accounting degree. And I love to travel different places so I can look for work in travel and tourism industry. This industry has a great potential for growth globally, additionally they need good qualified accountant to manage their business transaction and keep recording and allocating resources with an efficient accounting system. So if I tried to get job in that industry and also will be easier for me to develop in that industry as an accountant.
• Expand network to get a suitable job: Networking can be very helpful to get a suitable job. To create a personal network people can join in a group precisely where they can meet those people who are already related to that workplace. While attending the group events they can meet different people and express their interest to get job in a particular workplace. As employers always want to hire someone from the network because it’s easy, reliable time saving and less expensive then recruit from outside of the network. Moreover, function of network can be very dramatic some time. A person who is working as cleaner can get his dream job because of his strong network. All it needs to communicate with right people about your career of interest.
• LinkedIn: It is a social site where employers, employees, recruitment agencies, job seekers can meet, interact with each other by expressing their expectation and experiences. Employers can share their business ideas and look for suitable employees with intellectual abilities for their business. Employees can share their working experiences, ideas and ability as well as look for an appropriate job that will develop his career. Recruitment agencies can search for appropriate candidate and contact with them easily through LinkedIn from all over the world. The most interesting part of it is all the services of LinkedIn is free of charge.

Intercultural Challenges

When an international student come in Australia more often he might feel lonely because Australian culture and lifestyle, language and academic style can be different from their home country.

According to Mark, Australian culture is totally different from Asian, African and some European countries other than UK, so they might face difficulty to adopt to the Australian culture. As an international student from South Asian Country I also faced difficulties and felt lonely. The universities in Australia organize some workshop and they have officer so student can come and share their problem with them so. I talk to the head of the students of my campus, university of Wollongong. He introduced me with the peer mentoring student and set me up with a mentor who guide me through all the necessary matters so I don’t feel lonely to fit with the Australian culture.

Language can be a very difficult thing for all international student because English may not be the first language of them. My first language is Bangla and I also had problem with communicating In these case students should attend extra class to improve their proficiency in English which are arrange by the university and make friend with local students to communicate with them, Study along with them and don’t hesitate for their limitation of using English language. This way they can overcome their language problem easily and quickly. I used sit with my classmates as they were from different country and there were no alternative of English for discussion.

While sitting with them for group study I successfully solved this problem. Australian Academic system is very different than other nations as there are more part of critical thinking research and library work to learn things by study different book not only the text book. International students might find difficult with all these research based study. Likewse other universities of Australia my university has tutorial session so student can get familiar with the academic system and have clear idea about the lecture. I attend those tutorial class and those help me do an outstanding preparation for exam.

Recommendations

After analyzing the trend of Australian Labor market I have decided to find job in Accounting Industry as I have graduated from finance and accounting background. It has a good demand in almost every industry moreover I have personal interest in financial industry. From all the research and findings above I have come up with some plan for job seeking:

• I have decided to join the CPA group as I want to pursue my career as a chartered accountant I have to attend CPA exam before that I must find a mentor in a Chartered accountant firm. Joining in a CPA group can be help full for me. If I join in the group and start communicate with some chartered accountant.
• I have to build up a profile in LinkedIn properly which will help me to approach different employer and express my interest to them, additionally it will help me to marketing myself professionally.
• I can start meeting with alumni group as they have already experience in the market and settled in the job market. They can help me to create my network and getting my first job or an internship.
• Another plan is identifying the accounting firm of Australia, visit their website for career opportunity and send a proper tailored resume, cover letter with selective criteria and apply for the job.

Conclusion

In this report the trend of Australian Labor market has analyzed and there is and an in depth analysis for the career in Accounting; it has found very competitive and already packed with qualified accountant. For this reason there is presented a number of strategic plan to make the job seeking successful in accounting industry. Which suggest that networking, tailored resume for every job application, looking for job offline, and prepare a proper LinkedIn profile can be key to successful job searching.