Welcome to February!

I was looking forward to the beginning of February as, together with my family, I was headed to Japan to indulge my passion of skiing.  We were scheduled for ten days in Niseko on the island of Hokkaido and three days in Tokyo before heading home.  The holiday did not turn out as planned.

At the end of my first day of skiing I had an accident in the hotel Onsen (Japanese mineral spa) and broke 3 bones in my foot.  That ended my holiday as I had to return home.

At the beginning of February, the coronavirus was just beginning to become an issue of concern.  It is now a major international issue causing disruption to world trade, massive losses on ours, and other countries stock markets and the collapse of tourism and agricultural trade which is vital to the economy of North and West Queensland. The coronavirus pandemic is not yet fully developed, and the forecast is that it will cause massive disruption for an extended period, perhaps a year.

The fires over Christmas and New Year have also continued to have a drastic effect on tourism numbers with many cancellations to forward bookings.

Employment figures are currently holding around 5% however, the problem is that many employed people are underemployed in casual work with this trend expected to continue.  Unfortunately, as you would all appreciate, insufficient working hours do not maintain sustainable employment. To do a little bit to help Precruitment recently hosted a ‘Meet a Recruiter’ event in our offices. The event is designed to give jobseekers who are finding it challenging to secure suitable employment, the opportunity to sit down with a recruitment consultant and get some free professional advice and tips. We hosted the event in conjunction with CBC and with the support of our professional body the RCSA.

Precruitment is not in the tourism business but tourism is an industry that affects everyone in the North and West of Queensland.  Despite airline service cuts there is still significant airline capacity, domestic and international, arriving every day in our region.  We have a magnificent destination, a huge supply of quality accommodation, and world class tours and activities.  Australians are, at present, reluctant to travel overseas.  It is good to see some major funding has been announced with a $40 million marketing campaign to boost tourism both domestically and internationally. The airlines, hotels and tourism operators are working to present competitive packages to offer into the market. 

The market is also in the ‘usual’ holding pattern with local and state government elections in March and October respectively. Let’s hope government do their bit to start major projects and drive the economy as quickly as possible post elections.

On a positive note we have had widespread, fantastic rain falls through the month! Dams are full, rivers are flooded, and some records have been broken, the farmers are happy that they can start to rebuild, and communities are happy to have some water. Everyone is working together to help rebuild our economy and boost tourism and trade. We have faced many major economic downturns in the past, we have survived through them all and we will get through this challenging time as well. We are all in this together.