2017 has been another year of expansion for people2people. Our Managed Services division now have their own office in Chatswood, our specialist teams have expanded their service offering to include property and our Melbourne and Parramatta offices have doubled in the numbers of staff. The BIG news for the business is of course the opening of our New Zealand office this September.

Over the last eight weeks, people2people has had almost 1000 requests for the 2017 people2people market report. As many of our readers know, this report covers some of the trends we are seeing across decision making when recruiting; such as salary and employment data. This also gives us an insight into people2people as a business. As a recruiter of 20 years, I would love a dollar for every time I am asked “How’s the market?” people2people’s expansion indicates that the market is okay.

With specific reference to the accounting market, salaries have remained steady with the exception of a few specific pockets. We have seen the biggest salary moves at the Assistant Accountant level. People still appreciate additional benefits with bonuses, insurances and study support still being commonly offered. The shift to ‘activity based workstations’ in many businesses, has meant that flexible working hours is more of a given rather than a benefit. In line with achieving a reasonable work/life balance, our research shows that a majority of accounting teams are working between 38-44 hours per week. Our data regarding the mature aged workforce (55+) is in line with government data. Around 75% of the businesses we spoke to have not recruited a mature aged person into their accounts team in the last two years and 36% said they never had. Our government data (2015) shows that once unemployed, the mature aged worker is out of work for an average of 69 weeks. Frightening statistics really!

With the EOFY upon us, all insights suggest that the second half of 2017 will remain positive.