Drying economy causes drop in skilled vacancies

A slowing economy has contributed to a drop in skilled vacancies in the printing industry, according to a study by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The study showed that skilled vacancies dropped 24.1 per cent from one year ago. The department said the fall in skilled vacancies was common throughout, with decreases in 17 of the 18 occupations in October 2008.

Printing trades dropped 8.5 per cent, the study revealed.

This comes as no surprise to Hagop Tchamkertenian, manager for policy and government affairs, Printing Industries, who attributes a slow-down in the economy as one of the reasons for the drop.

"The economy is slowing down and a lot of printing companies are looking at shedding their workers so there isn't as much need to advertise," he said.

In addition to this, Hagop also attributed the clandestine nature of the printing industry as another reason why skilled vacancies remained high.

"Over the last few years, the printing industry has moved away from newspaper advertising," he said. "Word-of-mouth is very popular, a lot of people hear about jobs from internal networking and contacts."