The legal jobs market is continuing to be buoyant. Demand is outstripping supply in a candidate short market. The national unemployment rate is dropping below 4% and in legal is less than that.
Candidates have the bargaining positions, and we are seeing increased demand for flexible work practices. The “work from home” genie cannot be put back in the bottle even as the world adjusts to fewer covid restrictions.
Salaries are increasing in line with demand. Anecdotally we have seen rises of up to 30% for areas in demand. We have also noticed a rise in counter-offers as employers scramble to retain staff by matching offers.
Some trends we have observed are:
- Biggest jump in roles was family, Increasing by up to 75%
- Double the number of personal Injury roles
- A 66% decline in insolvency roles
The main levels of hiring was at the director/partner level reporting an increase of 66% whilst other roles at a lower seniority such as Junior Associates and managers dropped by 23%. It will be interesting to see if hiring amongst the graduate ranks continues to increase heading into Q4 as we are moving further away from the troublesome times of COVID 19 and after reporting a Q3 increase of 20%.
JOBS INDEX Q3 2022
| Area
Banking & Finance |
Q2 FY22
55 |
Q3 FY22
43 |
% change
-21% |
| Corporate / M&A | 66 | 59 | -10% |
| Employment | 34 | 35 | 3% |
| Family | 8 | 14 | 75% |
| In House | 46 | 39 | -15% |
| Insurance / Reinsurance | 43 | 45 | 4.6% |
| Litigation / Dispute Resolution | 39 | 49 | 25% |
| Real Estate | 52 | 39 | -25% |
| Regulatory | 20 | 20 | 0% |
| Personal Injury | 16 | 24 | 50% |
| Insolvency | 9 | 3 | -66% |
| Tax | 9 | 9 | 0% |
| Technology | 27 | 27 | 0% |
| TOTAL | 424 | 406 | -4% |
| Seniority | Q2 FY22 | Q3 FY22 | % change |
| Department / Div Head | 5 | 4 | -20% |
| Director / Partner | 3 | 5 | 66% |
| Graduate / Entry | 10 | 12 | 20% |
| Junior Associate / Manager | 13 | 10 | -23% |
| Mid Associate / Manager | 270 | 276 | 2% |
| Snr Associate / Manager | 185 | 163 | -11% |
Methodology: the Elias Legal Jobs Index is based from sample data extracted from Sydney and Melbourne law firm advertisements.