Is business confidence on its way back?

[BriscoeSearch]

Is business confidence on the way back?
13th June 2009

Is this a question you’ve been asking yourself in the last week or so? With the ASX creeping back above 4000 points for the first time in 2009, you may not be on your own!

We have certainly seen a marked improvement in client sentiment over the last 6-8 weeks. It seems the months of extreme concern were confined to Quarter 1 of the year, and while I am not suggesting for one minute that this may be the start of a recovery (bear in mind we have never been in a technical recession in Australia, despite all the hype between September and now), it has definitely been a period where clients have bounced back to some kind of normal service again.

We have also said that while candidate quantity was on the rise in our applications, the quality was not increasing at the same rate. The recent increase in confidence will probably strengthen the chances of this pattern continuing, as organisations now ensure they hold on to their best staff, given the hope that better economic times may be ahead of us.

The forging ahead of major resource projects in W.A. in the past few months suggests our state could be further insulated (although not totally) from the G.F.C. (yes, Global Financial Crisis now has its own official acronym!)

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Briscoe Search & Consulting: Executive Search & Recruitment in Perth, Western Australia