A low unemployment rate and continued job growth – nearly 444,400 people joined the Australian workforce in 2024 – means that hirers need to work harder to compete for top talent. In order to meet the challenges of staffing in an environment where talent is in short supply, Australian recruiting teams can use data to identify areas in which they need to implement better tools and procedures.
Australia: Benchmarks for Recruitment SmartRecruiters’
landmark 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks Report analyses key metrics across nearly 90 million job applications in 95 countries. The information presented in this article comes from 2.4 million applications for roles in Australia. Benchmark recruiting metrics can help Australian organisations see where they fit into the global picture, determine whether their own metrics are leading or lagging, and decide which solutions to implement.
Competition from applicants With an average of 65 applicants for each hire, Australian businesses receive 11% fewer applications per opening than the global average across all industries. Interview and offer rates are 55% and 66% higher, respectively, indicating that Australian employers are more willing to engage with candidates than their global counterparts. In other words, Australia is a good place to look for a job – and candidates know it, with candidates 5% less likely to accept their offers compared to residents of other nations.
Australian hiring teams could potentially reduce the number of candidates interviewed for each role by using AI-powered screening tools that surface best-fit candidates more quickly.
It’s time to hire Australia has the lowest overall time to hire of the five countries measured, with a median time to hire of just 32 days. Not only is it easier to get a job in Australia, but candidates also get hired faster there. This is 16 percent quicker than the worldwide average. Australian companies break from their global recruiting counterparts in the interview to offer stage, where they’ve managed to cut 5 days from the process compared to the global average.
Australian companies that want to speed up hiring even more could consider the use of AI-driven hiring tools; SmartRecruiters’ research found that the time to hire for organisations using AI is typically 26% faster than those that don’t use it.
Recruiter efficiency Australian recruiters typically handle 53 hires per month, a whopping 78% more global average of 30.
For Australian teams that use hiring scorecards, adoption lags, with just 88% of team members completing them. Hiring managers in Australia could potentially speed up hiring and ensure objectivity by using interview scorecards to assess candidates.
sources of employment Referrals and internal hiring are underutilized by Australian businesses; only 7% of hires come from organic sources, compared to 15% worldwide. To make up for lower-than-average applicant volume, Australian employers could invest in employee referral and internal mobility programs. These programs have the potential to raise employee morale, preserve institutional knowledge, and increase retention rates.
Recruiting metrics highlights for Australia
Australian recruiters deserve commendation for managing workloads that are 78% higher than the global average. In a setting where everyone is trying to do more with less, these recruiters have demonstrated their hard work and inventiveness. Having proven their abilities to use SmartRecruiters’ best-of-breed technology to their benefit, these teams are soon to become supercharged with Winston, our AI recruiting companion.
By enabling candidate conversations throughout the hiring funnel, Winston Chat will reduce the need for transactional conversations so that hiring teams can have more of the conversations that matter. Additionally, Winston screening, matching, and recruiting companion tools will deliver a seamless hiring process that allows recruiters to deliver even more exceptional results back to their businesses.
Examples of Australian recruiting
AI-driven hiring processes have already made an impact on hiring in Australia: Starbucks Australia enlisted SmartRecruiters and Sapia.ai to streamline high-volume hiring across more than 70 locations. Starbucks Australia was able to reduce new hire turnover by 56% thanks to the integrated solution, which saved recruiters two work days per week.
A not-for-profit organization that serves the autism community, Aspect (Autism Spectrum Australia), needed to update its recruitment procedures across its more than 70 locations. Using SmartRecruiters helped the organisation reduce hiring-related emails by 90% and reduce sourcing costs by 33%. Read the tale.
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Download the full report to learn about industry-specific differences in hiring across healthcare, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and technology, as well as a global overview of hiring benchmarks.
