The federal election put a dampener on what was typically the busiest time of the year for recruitment, according to Profusion Group director Cholena Orr.
“Nobody wanted to spend any money until they knew what the outcome of the election was,” said Ms Orr.
A lot of financial services projects have been put on hold, she said, and fund inflows haven’t been what they could have been as federal employees who are close to retirement wait for their ‘golden handshakes’.
In addition, three of the big four banks - Westpac, ANZ and NAB - have been in a ‘virtual freeze’ pending the end of their financial year as at 30 September.
A lot of discretionary hiring tends to be frozen until the banks’ new budgets are freed up for their new financial year.
“They won’t start recruiting until about mid-October/November. Then they’ll be really busy until about the 15 December, and then it will be dead until February,” said Ms Orr.
