Happy New Year. I hope you all enjoyed a relaxing, refreshing break and are invigored for an exciting 2025!

I know we all hold some nervous anticipation of what the year ahead will bring.

Employers are positive with survey results anticipating 31% of businesses to increase headcount in the first quarter of 2025. 48% of employers expect to remain the same and 18% foresee a decrease of employees. This is an encouraging forecast in growth for most sectors from the 2024 soft results.

There will be a lot of political change this year. Australia will be directly affected by the US and what polices the new president will implement. There could be tariffs imposed for China and other countries including Australia which will affect our economy in some way. There could be increased opportunity with new markets as a result. There are anticipated negotiations to bring an end to some of our current world conflicts. We all hope for peace and stability in the world.

Australia will be having a federal election this year which no matter the result, there will be changes in policies, economic and infrastructure spending and lots of promises. We are all hoping to see a drop in the cost of living, particularly power, insurances, fuel and interest rates.

In Queensland we are hoping to see the positive results of the promised changes from our new State Government, in particular the crime rate which remains high.

Wishing you all a fantastic and positive year ahead.

Thank you for your continued support of our local Queensland regional business, we appreciate all of our clients and candidates.