Are you planning to move to Australia for work? Depending on the role, the Australian job market can be highly competitive, with hundreds of job seekers fighting for the same advertised job vacancies. However, did you know that the majority of job opportunities in Australia are not visible?  

Recently I have participated in a webinar, and they mentioned that only 30% of the jobs were publicly out and advertised. Is this true?  

The short answer: who knows. There are no exact stats how much % of the jobs are advertised, one thing is sure, certainly not all. Currently there are over 470k jobs vacant in Australia as per ABS. (source: abs-job-vacancies-australia )

According to some informal surveys, about 30% of people found their new role through an advertised vacancy, while 45% found their job through networking, word-of-mouth, or directly approaching an employer.  

Welcome to the hidden job market! In this post, we will explore the hidden job market in Australia and offer strategies for job seekers to tap into this market. 

My personal experience and best-kept secrets. Noteworthy job market stats. 

In Australia there is no legal obligation for companies to make a vacancy public. Government organisations are exception to this rule, they have strict policies regarding recruitment and position backfilling. However private companies can basically do whatever they want.  

There are certainly many jobs that can be heard about through the grapevine or networking. Here is my take deriving from my recruiter and corporate experience: 

• When I worked as a recruiter, we advertised 75% of the jobs that were available in our database. The reason to do so was to attract many potential great applicants who can later be used to fill other jobs. We also indicated the potential salary; hence we attracted more people to our database. The missing 25% we backfilled by using people who applied for other jobs, but we found them more suitable and sellable for the unadvertised, hidden job prospects.  

• During my corporate experience, we advertised about 50% of the jobs in Australia. Most jobs were open for internal and external candidates. However, only up to a certain job grade level. E.g. you would not necessarily advertise senior management roles like key account managers, directors, vice presidents. These are filled by invitation and selection, or via head-hunters who also work undercover to source the right person.  

There are 60,000 jobs open on Seek, but this is only one recruitment portal out of many. In Australia there are over 2.5 million  (exactly 2,589,873 ) actively trading businesses out there. (source: June 2023 data abs-counts-australian-businesses). About 62% of these businesses do not have any employees, they are one man or woman shows.  

So, it leaves us with close to 1 million (984k precisely) businesses who do have employees. Albeit could be only one or two because many of them are small businesses, but they may be looking for someone from time to time. Based on the job vacancies of 470k and if I just do a simple math, then almost every second company does have a vacant role in their business. Of course, my calculation is just theoretical. 98% of the businesses in Australia employ less than 20 people, these small to medium enterprises may not use large job portals to seek new colleagues. They may hire through their local community job boards, via the grapevine, local networks, or local paper online or offline advertising. Maybe it is true that only 30% of the jobs are visible on large collector portals like Seek.  

Okay, so we have not answered the question, but it is true that there is a hidden market.  

Opportunities Beyond Advertisements, 10 job hunting strategies 

What can you do to find these hidden hiring opportunities? Well, you can actually do a lot! 

• Go to specialised portals if you are interested working for the government – apsjobs.gov.au. These jobs may not be displayed on sites like Seek. 
• Networking – use LinkedIn or traditional friends and offline networks. 
• Post on LinkedIn regularly. Daily or weekly. After some months, potential employers will find you and reach out to you. 
• Join LinkedIn groups and be active. Post, comment, like and have an opinion. Sometimes group members reach out for help and offer employment, or you can proactively contact those who are crying for assistance. 
• Read, read and read. Look at industry news, set up Google alerts for keywords, what companies are expanding to new markets, new geographies, introducing new products. Research and find the decision makers, contact them proactively. 
• Check out your preferred industry and preferred companies’ websites. Many companies encourage job seekers to contact them even if there is no vacancy on their portals. Why not use this opportunity to introduce yourself and your unique expertise? 
• Talk to recruiters, they know who is on the move, swapping, retiring, relocating and what holes they create in an organisation. 
• If you are a member of a professional association, they may have a job board with industry specific roles. 
• Go to events, meetups, conferences, congresses, trade shows that are relevant in your desired industry and bump into opportunities there. Online events are also perfect, you do not need to be in the country. Imagine you have been applying for advertised job vacancies for months without success. You are feeling discouraged and frustrated. Then, you attend an event, where you strike up a conversation with a professional in a virtual chatroom or face to face. They mention a job opening in their company that no one knows about. You apply and land the job!  
• If you have capacity, take on volunteering, even from another country like an online avatar. This may lead to real a job later.

The most important thing is that you will not hear about dream jobs if you are curling up at home on the couch, you need to be OUT there and PROACTIVELY looking, asking to hear about an amazing opening. Remember if you don’t ask, you don’t get!  

Sponsored jobs in Australia 

Are you interested in learning more about how to find sponsored jobs in Australia and how to tap into the hidden job market? Sign up for our 60-minute workshop! We’ll provide you with practical tips and strategies to boost your job search and increase your chances of success in the Australian job market. 

We are here to guide you and help you get ahead of the game. With insider tips and tricks you can figure out how things work before you land, so that you can enjoy all the wonders this amazing country has to offer from day one. 

If you need any help or advice, do not hesitate, get in touch! Happy job hunting!