A vet earns on average $89,000 in Australia - and a GP earns $288,600 a year. Photo / 123rf
A vet earns on average $89,000 in Australia - and a GP earns $288,600 a year. Photo / 123rf
They come with generous, six-figure salaries – but one of Australia's leading jobs sites has revealed the surprising dream jobs employers are struggling to fill.
According to online careers platform Indeed, more than 70 per cent of Australian roles are filled in less than one month, reports news.com.au.
However, the company has recently collected data on the hardest-to-fill positions in the country and found a surprising mix of jobs were on the market for 60 days or more.
Veterinarians – who enjoy an average salary of A$83,243 ($89,064) – were the hardest-to-fill role, with job ads for this profession on the market for longer than any other.
Meanwhile, the hard-to-fill job with the highest salary was for general practitioners, who earn a staggering A$269,800 ($288,667) a year on average.
Jay Munro, head of career insights at Indeed, said while skills shortages were a factor, the main issue was the competitive landscape for businesses to hire talent.
"Take those working in tech for instance. Nearly every company is now a tech company; from banks and law firms to retailers, most businesses are recruiting software engineers, data engineers or software architects," he told news.com.au.
"This means it's getting harder for businesses to fill their roles as demand has outpaced the number of jobseekers available, and jobseekers can afford to be more choosy.
"It's also important to note that for a number of these roles, the career trajectory isn't necessarily as straightforward as others. For instance, it's not uncommon for veterinarians and GPs to open their own businesses when they're fully qualified as opposed to seeking employment from a business."
Munro said while GPs and vets needed to be highly qualified, their wages were also "comparatively low".
"We know that a lot of graduate doctors aren't specialising in general practice as it's a very different environment, and money can be considerably lower than a specialist consultant in another field," he explained.
He said the common theme among most of the jobs on the list was the "competitive nature of these professions".
"Hirers need strong selling points to attract talent," he said.
He also claimed the jobs on the top-15 list either required a lot of education – meaning there could be a talent shortage – or were unskilled jobs, which were "typically low paying and therefore not that appealing".
While Indeed crunched the numbers based on job listings from across Australia, Munro said location could also be a factor.
Jay Munro, head of career insights at Indeed, said the main issue was the competitive landscape for businesses to hire talent. Photo / supplied
"Location is really important when people are looking for a role because people take commute times into perspective," he said.
"The competition for technology talent is typically concentrated in capital cities, so it may be harder for businesses in regional areas to hire for tech talent.
"Interestingly, vets and GP jobs are not in high concentration in capital cities and are more in suburbs, city fringes or regional and rural areas. This can then limit the number of jobseekers that are willing to travel out further for the job."
Munro said he was most surprised to see pizza cooks and soccer coaches make the list, but said it probably indicated people weren't searching for those jobs.
He said the research proved workers in these fields could afford to be more selective.
"It indicates competition between businesses is high and talent in these areas is highly sought after," he said.
"Much like a buyers' market in property, hard-to-fill roles means jobseekers can afford to be choosy.
"For employers trying to hire for these roles, it's important to build a strong brand and work harder to attract people."
