The Olivier/Advantage Job Index

As of March 1 the Olivier Group has become the Australian arm of Advantage Professional, a global brand in the top 1% of all recruitment companies.

Over more than 10 years the Olivier Job Index has tracked monthly changes in the Australian job market. Our statistics have covered the tech boom and bust, the resources boom, the GCF, and Australia's remarkable job resilience in recent months.

The Job Index goes out to thousands of subscribers each month and has wide currency among job seekers, and employers. Share analysts and other industry observers have also commented on how useful they've found it. The data is sought by a variety of state and federal government departments and agencies. Robert Olivier has had regular contact with the RBA, too. It's a widely known and well respected lead economic indicator.

With the name change the same rigorous research will be undertaken and Robert Olivier will continue his in-depth analysis of trends in the Australian job market. It is likely that Robert's analysis and views will find a wider audience than just Australia with this change in the brand.

At a function to mark the end of the well respected Olivier Group brand, co-founder Helen Olivier remarked that after 19 years the company still had relationships with its first two clients. It's a remarkable boast and suggests that under the Advantage Professional brand those personal relationships and high level of service will continue.

On a personal note the next Job Index will be my last too. After 10 years and a relationship that started with the beginning of the index, I'm making substantial changes in my life and work. This is a natural juncture. I will follow the Olivier team's progress with great interest and good will.

Thank you all for your support and for making the Olivier Job Index so well known and well regarded. You'll be contacted soon by my replacement, I hope you're as welcoming to them as you have been to me.

White Collar & Graduate Jobs Bounce Back.

Sydney March 7, 2010. The Advantage Job Index (formerly the Olivier Job Index)* rose 1.59% in February, continuing January's growth. “Eight of the past nine months have been positive,” says Robert Olivier, director of Advantage Professional. “Last week's strong GDP figures didn't surprise, the jobs data had already suggested substantial growth.”

February is usually seen as setting the tone for the next few months, but there is mixed news with six of 16 sectors falling. “The RBA has signalled there will be further rate rises, but despite the optimism there may not be a great depth of confidence among employers yet.”

“The good news is white collar jobs bounced back,” Robert Olivier says. Legal job ads were up 11.41%, Accounting rose 10.02%, and Admin and Clerical vacancies were up 5.51%. In good news for young job seekers graduate jobs have grown 3.96% in 12 months compared to the national index which is still 13.76% down on this time last year. “Employers are starting to hire with young people first and most of that happened in the last month.”

“The Legal sector has seen some upheaval lately with global firms head-hunting among the leading local talent,” says Robert Olivier. “It's further proof that Australian business has to compete internationally for top performers.”

In Accounting the biggest growth was in Chartered Accounting jobs in professional practice. Job ads for graduates also saw very strong demand in the Legal and Accounting sectors in February.

IT&T performed strongly with growth of 8.11% in February, spurred on by management, sales and database development jobs.

Down during the month were jobs in Engineering (-5.52%), Healthcare (- 5.15%), and Education (-1.92%).

After a gang buster month in January, last month saw jobs in WA come off the boil, especially in the previously strong Building sector (down 11.13%) and the Engineering sector (down 10.17%). Engineering over 12 months is still the worst performing sector nationally with a fall of 44.88% .“This was the last sector to feel the down turn and it's just a matter of time, given the demand for resources, for it to bounce back.”

Of the big states NSW performed best in the month (+3.57%), while Victoria was up 2.91%.

Over 12 months the one of the strongest performers has been HR. Graduate opportunities in this sector have almost doubled since this time last year. “This means executives are thinking about long term people issues rather than short term financial issues, ” Robert Olivier says.

Banking and Financial Services were up 1.62% in February. Leading the way Financial Planning vacancies are up 7.7% in the month and 13.5% up on a year ago. “These are client facing roles. People's super has been knocked around by the GFC so it's a more competitive market. People are shopping around.”

*On March 1 the Olivier Group became the Australian arm of Advantage Professional, a major global recruitment brand. They will continue to research and publish the well established and respected Job Index which now boasts a 10 year history of monthly reports.

Robert Olivier is a Director of Advantage Professional. The Advantage Job Index surveyed 177,729 Positions Vacant ads on commercial job sites on average each week in February and analysed them by state and industry sector. Robert Olivier is available for interview, and the microeconomic data including graphs of the industry sectors surveyed in the Advantage Job Index will be available on Monday March 8 on http://candidates.hirethinking.com/page/job_index.html

Unless otherwise noted, all AJI figures quoted are seasonally adjusted, based on ABS advice.

For comment contact Robert Olivier

direct 02 8244 8403 switch 02 9262 5344

Level 9, 28 Margaret St, Sydney 2000

bob.olivier@advantageresourcing.com

Released by Corporate Communications and Counsel. www.corpcoms.com

Contact Bob Hughes 0407 901 587.

Olivier Group becomes Advantage Professional.

For Immediate Release.

From Monday March 1, the Olivier Group has become the Australian arm of Advantage Professional, a global brand that is in the largest 1% of all recruitment companies. The Sydney based company will join forces with 230 offices in the US, 80 in Japan and significant operations in Europe and Asia.

This formalizes a strategic investment made by Advantage Professional in Olivier Group in September 2008 and is part of a global re-branding for the group formerly known as Radia Holdings, now known as Advantage Resourcing.

The Olivier Group was founded by Helen and Robert Olivier 19 years ago. “We're proud of what we've achieved and look forward to the future. This restructure will provide greater opportunities globally for job seekers and our clients,” says Robert Olivier. “We've been operating in the global job market for many years, this recognizes that under the new brand.”

The Olivier Job Index will continue in its current form and will now be known as the Advantage Job Index. “After more than 10 years of monthly releases, the Index is a recognized lead economic indicator, and a widely used tool in the Australian employment landscape,” Robert says. “It was innovative when it started and it's stood the test of time.” The next report covering February's job market will be released on Sunday March 7.

“Our brand has been enhanced by the Index, but our reputation has been based on what we've done for our clients and our candidates,” Robert says. “That won't change. Helen and I both remain Executive Directors and the team is committed to the future success of Advantage Professional.”

“The global re-branding started by talking with our clients,” explains Charles J. Abadie, the global Chairman and CEO of Advantage Resourcing. “We then looked at the overall global marketplace and realized there is a significant disconnect between existing staffing and recruiting companies and the organizations that hire them. Our organizational structure is set up to solve the real issues our clients face every day.”

Advantage is divided into four specialized business groups — Advantage Professional, Advantage xPO, Advantage Technical Resourcing and Advantage Staffing — each focused on delivering core practice areas and disciplines across multiple industries.

• Advantage Professional recruits and places highly qualified candidates in a variety of business roles including banking, finance and accounting, executive and office support, sales and marketing, HR and legal.

• Advantage xPO is a professional services and outsourcing group dedicated to helping companies optimize their day-to-day business functions by providing RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and Contingent Workforce Management programs, consulting and solutions.

• Advantage Technical Resourcing is a technical staffing group, focusing exclusively on providing qualified technical, IT, engineering, R&D and scientific talent.

• Advantage Staffing focuses on providing employment opportunities for candidates in general business, clerical, administration, light industrial and skilled trades. .

“The big difference between Advantage Resourcing and other staffing companies is that we’re just not just dots on a map,” stated Jack Irving, General Manager, Global Marketing, “It’s the combination of our global sharing of information, the way we’ve structured our groups—working together, not in silos—and our product and the service offerings we’ve created to solve our clients problems that make us special.”

Find out more and get introduced to Advantage Resourcing globally at www.hirethinking.com.

For more information on Advantage Professional in Australia:

Robert Olivier

02 9262 5344

02 8244 8403

Level 9, 28 Margaret St, Sydney 2000

bob.olivier@advantageresourcing.com

Released by Corpcoms

Contact Bob Hughes

0407 901 587

www.corpcoms.com

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