A selection of recent Eye catching news stories during February 2010:

Slump in job ads clouds economic outlook
Newspapers and online sites carried fewer job advertisements last month, pointing to weakness in the economy’s rebound. The monthly survey by ANZ Bank showed the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet fell by 8.1 per cent in January to an average of 134,106 per week, seasonally adjusted. That compares with a 4.6 per cent gain in December, figure revised down from the 6 per cent growth pace originally published.
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald 1 February 2010

Economic growth depends on population
The government has reiterated the “three Ps” - population, participation and productivity - that will help maintain economic growth despite Australia’s swiftly ageing population, in its Australia to 2050: Future Challenges report. The third intergenerational report produced by Treasury highlighted the need for well-structured immigration to pick up the slack as Australia funds millions more retirees in coming decades. By 2050, 25 per cent of the population will be over 65, compared with 13 per cent now. As a result, the percentage of people over 15 years in the workforce is expected to slump from more than 65 per cent to less than 61 per cent.
As reported in BRW Magazine 4 February 2010

RCSA and ITCRA give nod to skilled migration overhaul
The federal government’s revamp of the skills migration program will see the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) thrown out, and stricter controls on the recruitment of foreign blue collar and trades workers by Australian employers. In announcing the overhaul today, Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans said the government would replace the MODL with the new Skilled Occupations List (SOL), which would focus on high value professions and trades. The SOL will be maintained by independent statutory body Skills Australia, which was set up as part of the Skilling Australia policy in 2008. Neither the RCSA nor ITCRA are represented in the group.
As reported in Shortlist 8 February 2010

Brave new old world
Last week’s third Intergenerational Report has spelled out the biggest challenge facing Australian managers in the coming decades - how to manage older workers. The report says that the proportion of people aged over 65 years will almost double to 26 per cent in the next 40 years. Right now, taxes of five workers are available to support every retired person, but by 2050 this burden will fall on just 2.7 workers. One obvious solution, enshrined in the plan in last year’s federal budget to raise the retirement age to 67, is to keep workers on the job for longer and push back retirement costs.
As reported in BRW Magazine 11 February 2010

QLD government moves to centralised ICT contracting
The Queensland state government will centralise and simplify the management of its ICT contracting arrangements, says ICT Minister Robert Schwarten, but it will not go for a master vendor plan. Schwarten said today that after “’extensive” industry engagement with both the IT and recruitment sectors, the government had opted for an internally managed procurement mode, with all IT contracting to be coordinated by the Chief Procurement Office. “This includes managing recruitment agency requests for contractor placements, levels of payment, required skills, and contractor management and performance,” Schwarten said.
As reported in Shortlist 11 February 2010

Dismissal claims soar
Unfair dismissal claims have soared since the Rudd government removed small-business exemptions from new workplace laws that came into effect last year. Officials from the government’s new industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia, told a Senate estimates hearing yesterday there had been 5208 applications over unfair dismissal in the first six months of the new laws from July 1 last year, with 2783 of these claims settled through conciliation. There are no publicly available figures for unfair-dismissal applications in the same six month period in the previous years, but there were 7994 applications in the 2008-09 financial year, suggesting a significant increase on a six monthly basis.
As reported in The Australian Financial Review 11 February 2010

The employment market is forever changing. Some sectors hibernate when times are tough. Others keep hiring. And new fields are always presenting unexpected opportunities.
The latest unemployment rate, sliding back to 5.3 per cent after a peak of 5.8 per cent less than six months ago, tells a story of an economy bucking global trends. But will the revived jobs market regain the shape it had before the financial crisis? Mercer principal Martin Turner says annual growth in salaries has been on a slide for the past two years, but this is predicted to rebound in 2010-11. Salaries grew by an average of 3.5 per cent in the 2008-09 financial year and are predicted to slow further in 2009-10 to 3.1 per cent. An upswing of 3.3 per cent should occur in the latter half of 2010, Turner says. Baby boomers are phasing out of the workforce and an ageing population will be a boon for those employed in health. The reduction in candidates will also boost salaries.
As reported in BRW Magazine 18 February 2010

Bully alarm
Despite growing evidence that bullying is occurring in many workplaces, Australian employers have been slow to take the problem seriously. Richard West, human resources partner at law firm Minter Ellison, says work-related stress and other forms of psychological injury resulting from bullying are now among the most common complaints for workers seeking compensation.
As reported in BRW Magazine 18 February 2010

Companies that cut staff in the downturn are facing hiring headaches
Employers who rushed to slash their staff during last year’s downturn may find the strategy backfiring on them with fewer suitable candidates among job seekers than they might have expected. Not only that, but it will take more than just dollars to get the best people back in again. Individuals are opting for employers with strong leadership and communication skills and an emphasis on work-life balance. Employees are disenchanted with the way managers operated their businesses during the downturn, Hudson Australia and New Zealand chief executive Mark Steyn says.
As reported in BRW Magazine 18 February 2010

Sex at work: weapon or repression?
People can use relationships at work to kick-start their career, but relationships can also turn out to be repressive and hinder careers from flourishing. Research shows that a large proportion of workers have had amorous relations with colleagues, but what if they are vials or the boss is involved? Different companies have different rules about their staff entering into liaisons with co-workers, some companies impose a complete ban. Many companies will move one of the participants elsewhere, but that can create further problems of a different kind. There are legal aspects to consider when redeploying or sacking staff, especially in the USA. The conventional wisdom is that relationships with colleagues are to be deplored - and if it is with the boss, then you should run a mile or get the lawyers in.
As reported by BBC News 19 February 2010

Tech sector head for better times as GFC budget freeze ends
IT spending should loosen up, especially when budgets are reset with the new financial year, and business looks for technology to help it grow, rather than slow. The mainland dig has begun now laying fibre for the Rudd government’s $43 billion national broadband network, and the first NBN services are due to fire up in Tasmania mid-year, even though Telstra and the government have yet to strike a deal on the NBN. Projects that were canned during the GFC may well get the green light this years. Government IT, federally and across many of the states, is facing an election year. At federal level, the government will be trying to fire up its post-Gershon Review plan to cut IT costs and free up capital for more ambitious service delivery projects.

The Australian Tax Office is in the midst of a $725 million systems overhaul. The Tax Office will launch a server and storage virtualization and consolidation program as well as boosting mobile and online service delivery. At Centrelink, CIO John Wadens says he will build on the document digitization effort introduced last year and expanding mobile service delivery. Gartner analyst Ian Bertram has watched business intelligence fall off the radar in recent years as the buzz around cloud computing and integrating Web 2.0 technology into the rigour of the business world has grown louder. Bertram says the market in what he calls advanced analytics will surge as smart devises spread. On the consumer side, the growing mix of devices should keep cash registers ringing. Apple’s iPad and HP’s Slate should lift tablet PC sales, while the advent of 3D TV will help display makers and drive 3D games and other entertainment.
As reported in The Australia 23 February 2010.