Demand for insurance and superannuation brokers outstripped supply last month as employers struggled to cope with the June 30 rush.
According to job search engine Seek, insurance and super brokers took out the top position for jobs that were heavily advertised with few applicants.
They eclipsed other high-demand jobs, those being real estate and property leasing agents, radiologists and sonographers, landscape architects and solicitors.
It was the first time that the job sector made it into the company’s index of the most sought after positions.
“It was no big surprise that super brokers roles came up in the top five because of the mad rush – it wouldn’t normally be a hot job,” Seek sales director Joe Powell said.
It’s been driven by growth in that sector,” Powell said.
The July 1 deadline for Australians to take advantage of favourable tax treatment given to lump sum super contributions appears to have caught employers by surprise, Powell said.
“There was a little bit of unknown in terms of what the implication was going to be,” he said.
“The industry probably underestimated the level of activity at the start of June. They started to advertise heavily.”
New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia all experienced high demand, Seek reported.
Insurance is not seen as a sexy industry but people are frequently surprised at the variety of roles and career progression, Oamps Insurance Brokers human resources manager Jennifer Lord said
“We have not seen a marked increase in job vacancies in June although the number of vacancies has been steadily increasing as our business has grown,” she said.
An additional $10 billion poured into retail, industry and self managed super funds on top of normal contributions in the June quarter 2007, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia said.
