I remember back when I was fresh out of University, looking through the papers for a suitable job, writing my resume, and nervously waiting for the phone to ring.

As I remember it, the job section was usually disappointingly small, usually only offering a few positions that I was actually interested in, and I would always find that any job I applied for had about 100 other applications.

So what’s going on now?

I picked up the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, and found the 1/4 page add on page three had been bought by an employment agency. As had two half page ads, on pages 4 and 5… The further I looked, the more employment ads I saw. It was like picking up a paper version of seek.com.au.

So what’s the story? Why are there so many jobs, and so few skilled workers to fill them all of a sudden?

Could this be the very first ripple effect from the 25% University fee increase in 2005? Perhaps that is a factor,.. but personally I think it is more likely to be a result of the “self employment” boom that has gripped Australia over the last 5 or 10 years. Just about everyone I know either runs their own business, or wants to run their own business because they hate their job.

Why do they hate their jobs you ask? Long hours is high on the list of complaints, and there is no doubt that Australia’s working week is a lot longer than most other countries in similar economic climates. (Namely most of Europe). In fact, most of our conditions are a long way behind European countries. Here are a few examples of other countries and their annual leave requirements:

Australia: As of 27 March 2006, 20 work days (4 weeks). 2 weeks can be “sold” to employer. Additional Long service leave is also payable.

Austria 35 days, for elderly employees 42 days.

Brazil 30 consecutive days, of which 10 can be sold back to the employer

You can see the full table at wkipaedia here.

Another area where we are a long way behind is maternity leave. This is really embarrassing. Australia offers 0 weeks paid maternity leave, while just about every country in Europe offers at least 16 weeks, fully paid, and some give up to 1.5 years. Here’s the details.

You will notice that there are only three countires on the entire list that do not offer their citizens any paid maternity leave. The USA (surprise surprise…), Papua New Guinea, and Australia.