2023 has been an interesting year. It’s been one of the more challenging years for Recruitment Agencies across Australia and globally. Recruitment Agencies globally forecasted slower growth for 2023, and predictions of tiger talent pools, reduction of job vacancies and pricing pressures for employers. The results of this have been evident with the largest agencies taking an average hit of 3%-13% in their share price over calendar 2023 to date (as of early December 2023).

It’s also been a year PPG had to try new things, test different markets, welcome some new faces, and farewell some others. Whilst it’s been a tougher market this year, we are proud to have achieved what we achieved this year and are setup to have our best year yet for 2024!

The Cash Rate’s Impact on Recruitment

In the past 18 months, the cash rate has increased from 0.85% to 4.35%. This calendar year alone has seen it increase from 3.1% to 4.35% with five increases of 0.25%. We all know why the RBA has made these increases to the cash rate, to get inflation under control, and from our perspective, they have done exactly that. 2023 has been a slower year for the Mortgage Broker recruitment market. Specifically across lenders and aggregators. We have seen very little to no growth for these institutions and organisations. In fact, we have seen the banks, lenders, aggregators and even larger brokerages go through waves of redundancies.

We have still seen some growth coming from Brokerages though with new roles being created, and positions being backfilled, and whilst this has been considerably less than previous years, it’s still been enough volume to keep us busy on the recruitment front. The great news for Brokers this year, is that as always, the consumers are still relying on their support and expertise (hovering around 71% direct to broker), and whilst they have been less busy writing loans for new purchases and investments, brokers have made up the slack in refinancing existing and new customer loans, and still maintain market share against consumers going direct to banks and lenders.

Some fintechs, Private Lenders, and start-ups have also kept us busy this year, as their growth has been less impacted by the cash rate increases and inflation this year. In fact some of these private lenders have thrived in this market.

Roland’s going to be a dad!

After a challenging journey trying to start a family, Roland and his wife Madison are overjoyed to be expecting the birth of their first child (a baby girl) in late February next year. This is the news of 2023 Roland is most proud of and excited for.

Our Graduate Model

After launching our Graduate Recruitment Service in 2022, 2023 was also a great success, helping many Brokerages recruit intelligent and driven entry-level talent. This has been a game changer for these employers, as they’re not competing with other employers for limited and in some cases overpriced talent in our industry. Investing in the right attitude and person has paid off big time for them.

SPOILER, next year we plan to expand beyond the broking sector with this service. It’s been such a success for our industry, that we will make this service available to lenders, aggregators, property groups, real estate groups and other financial services businesses like accountants, financial planners and lawyers. We are very excited for 2024 and the future expansion of the Graduate Program.

PPG’s 6th Birthday

In June 2023 PPG turned 6 years old, and the team celebrated by doing what we do best. Eating! We love ourselves some good Japanese food, and filled our bellies with exactly that.

Our People

We welcomed Matthew Lee who took over the position of Marketing Manager. Matt’s been a great contributor since February 2023 and has helped us elevate our content strategy, reporting and marketing initiatives.

We also welcomed India and TJ in May as rookie Recruiters. Sadly, recruitment is a tough job, and not for everyone. TJ has decided to follow her other passions, and finished up with us in December, whilst India is thriving and is on track to have her best Quarter yet!

After almost 3 years, we fairwell the one and only Dat Dao. Dat has had an incredible journey with PPG over this time, starting from a rookie recruiter, moving into a Senior Recruiter position and for the last year he’s been the Team Leader for our VIC recruitment team. Dat’s cheekiness, loving nature and food stashes will be missed dearly, but we wish Dat well in his future journey outside of Recruitment.

SPOILER, we have a new Recruitment Leader starting with us on the 8th of January whom we are very excited about. Keep your eyes and ears peeled to learn all about our newest PPG superstar! She joins us with years of sales experience and existing recruitment experience too.

Thank you

In 2023 we continued doing what we love—helping businesses and individuals thrive. We take deep pride in supporting our candidates and clients to make informed decisions about their career, or hiring strategies. A big thank you to everyone who has been part of our journey this year. Without you, it wouldn’t be possible.

We hope you all have a fun and safe holiday season, and we look forward to continuing our work with you next year. Here’s to a fantastic 2024!