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Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers' Association Head of Advocacy and Strategy on the 13% increase in job ads · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Seek Employment data out today. This is job adds April.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Job adds up zero point eight percent month on month,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: thirteen percent year on year. Number of applicants per job
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: down slightly one point six percent from March to April.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Alan McDonald, AMA, head of Advocacy and Strategy, is with
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: us this morning. Alan, Good morning morning. Right, So do
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: we take these with a grain of salt given how
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the sort of low base we've been coming off.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's slightly encouraging that the number of
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: ads is up. But I looked at that year on
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: year figure, which is over thirteen percent, and I thought, well,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: let's have a look at last year. So April one
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: last year, and it doesn't seem like a year ago.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: But that was when mister Trump announced a tariff's that
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: was the big day for that and unampointment was at
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: five point one it's at five point four now and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: business confidence dropped about ten points in that month, so
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: a month. If you look at that year on year figure,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: April last year was a pretty rugged year. Although April
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: this year is not a heck of a lot better, given
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: that we're in that fuel crisis as well, So it's
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: slightly encouraging. I guess that those job numbers have held
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: up a bit. Yeah.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: My sense is that businesses are kind of getting used
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to the knocks, and you know, if you sat around
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and waited all day for a perfect condition to hire somebody,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you'd probably actually never hire anyone At the moment.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, I think that's been the case for a little while. So,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: but don't forget too that there was some pretty encouraging
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: and pretty strong signs pre the fuel crisis. This is
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: just the latest knock and some of those sectors in
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the air, you know, they were going quite strongly, and
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: our exports sector still is going strongly. So there's some
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: underpinning things I think holding those numbers up.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: What about AI? This mentions that we've at a doubling
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and the mentioning of AI and job ads. Are we
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: embracing it in the way that we should be? Are
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: we training the kids to use it in the way
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: that they should be so they can come into new jobs?
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I think AI it's not a surprise AIS developing so rapidly.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I think the biggest problem is, or the biggest issue
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: facing businesses is because it's moving so fast, how do
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: they actually get their heads around it and then apply
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: it to their businesses. Some of the changes we're seeing
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and just the ability of AI. It's talking to a
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: group of people who specialize in this stuff, and as
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: an international test that was developed by one hundred and
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: fifty PhDs An area specialists, it's twenty five hundred questions.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Nine months ago, a human being was answering one percent
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: of those questions and AI was answering one point seven.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: That number now for AIS is nearly seventy percent. That's
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: the strides that it's making and teaching itself. So how
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: you apply some of that to your business is the issue.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Allen job Ads, you mentioned we were down in the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: dumps last April. Yes, we're up thirteen percent. When do
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: you think we're going to see hiring sprees happening?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I don't think we'll see a hiring spree ryot. I
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: think once we get some kind of final resolution out
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: of the straight performers in Iran, or if we are
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: going to get one of those, then I think you'll
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: see some incremental growth. It won't be a hockey stick,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: but we're all looking for some steadiness and some stability
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: in the setting so that we can start getting on
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: with some things, but it is encouraging that that data
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: is holding up a little bit in terms of hiring.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Ellen good Stuff Allen McDonald's Employees Manufacturers Association.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:40
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• 3:43
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