Employees who changed jobs declined in the 12 months to February 2024, according to a new report, but some employers are still reporting medium to high replacement rates.
The latest report from Jobs and Skills Australia revealed that 1.1 million people changed jobs in the 12 months to February 2024.
This brings the country’s job mobility rate to eight per cent, down from the previous peak of 9.6% in February 2023, but higher than the record low of 7.5% in February 2021.
“It is worth noting that despite the recent increased rate of job mobility over 2021–2023, it is still relatively low compared to earlier decades and has generally been trending downwards since the late 1980s,” the report read.
Replacement rates revealed
Despite the decline in job mobility, the report found that 24% of employers still had to replace staff at least every three to six months.
Among employers who had most recently recruited staff, the report found that 14% replaced staff every three to six months, while 10% had to replace them at least every three months.
“This was most common in Accommodation and Food Services and in Labour roles,” the JSA said in a media release.
For employers with medium or high replacement rates, 42% of them said they usually replaced staff due to people leaving for other job opportunities (42%).
Others cited the following reasons:
- Nature of the job (27%)
- Employees get bored or lack commitment(21%)
- Hired wrong candidates for the job (15%)
- Job conditions or salary dissatisfaction (15%)
Impact of replacing employees
More than half of employers regularly replacing staff said doing so has cost them time on training new employees.
More than a quarter said it had a negative impact on existing employees (26%), while 21% said it reduced productivity and revenue.
To avoid replacing staff often, 29% of employers said they are offering higher wages and other incentives (29%).
Some employers also said they:
- Implemented flexible work arrangements (15%)
- Upskilled existing staff (13%)
- Improved work culture or environment (12%)
- Recognised and rewarded staff (12%)
- Offered staff discounts or subsidies (8%)
- Improved recruitment (5%)
- Offered movement options within the business (3%)