CouncilJobs Blogs

How Will You Resolve Your Career in 2023?

2023 is here, it’s time to pursue your New Year’s resolutions, and January-February is the right time to make a career change into council work. As CouncilJobs’ seasonal data on job search suggests, January-February is the most common period where people make the confident decision to jump ship at their workplaces. In the beginning months of the year, employers launch new strategies, projects, and team building initiatives to target the new year’s objectives. How do you meet your need for flexibility and avoid uncertain job security? Council provides you with flexibility, job security, unique skill application, and a healthy work-life balance, so now is the time to make a career switch. Last year saw record job vacancies advertised in Australia and New Zealand Councils as councils struggled to catch up from a ‘perfect storm’ of demand for talent. The start of the year is your opportunity to merge your lifestyle with your career and CouncilJobs is here to support you. Through CouncilJobs you can find an enormous range of council employment opportunities, where flexible work arrangements and extensive employment benefits are prioritised. Read More

CouncilJobs expands to New Zealand

CouncilJobs now lets you explore every Council Job in Australia and New Zealand with one click.  New Zealand Councils have always had the opportunity to list their Jobs with CouncilJobs & reach our talent pool with targeted alerts and New Zealanders have always been able to subscribe for  free to CouncilJobs alerts. Now we are including every job in every council in New Zealand in our website search capability so that whenever a jobseeker searches on the CouncilJobs website by either Job title, location or Job category, they will automatically now see every job relevant to their search across Australia and New Zealand. Read More

Exclusive report: What is driving Council recruitment in 2021?

Councils are experiencing unprecedented new pressures that are making recruitment more difficult than ever. So says a new HRhub Resonate report: Council Recruitment 2021 – Trends & Insights. HRhub is a collaboration of leading suppliers in Council recruitment – Blackadder Associates, CouncilJobs & Leonards Advertising. Read More 

Council Hiring is Recovering – Now is the Time to Consider a Career in Local Government

It’s no secret that recruitment has ground to a halt over the past few months as countries and governments have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic with lock-downs and stay-at-home orders. Lives have been permanently disrupted and local government hiring mostly screeched to a halt.

As Australia navigates its way out of this public health and economic crisis, we’re starting to see good signs of recovery in the Council job market. Read More 

Where is Local Government Heading? CouncilJobs Jobseekers Report Summary

What You Can Do to Improve Your Application

Jobs in Focus - Financial Analysis

Financial Analysis   An Interview with Jody Wang of Cumberland Council    It’s easy to underestimate the sheer size and complexity of many council projects and initiatives that are undertaken. The public generally only see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to major projects. Yet if you look a little deeper, you’ll find layers upon layers of financial planning, compliance and strategic analysis that too often goes unseen. One of the unsung heroes of major projects at Cumberland Council is Jody Wang, who thrives in the complexity of planning and budgeting. It’s safe to say that without the crucial beneath-the-surface work that Jody does... Read More

Jobs in Focus - Environmental Management

Jobs in Focus - Environmental Management Officer at Cumberland Council 

Working for a Council is a unique experience. With a strong focus on community interests and a wide variety of divisions and job types, a Local Government organization is unlike anything you’ll find in the private sector.  Read More

Driving Sustainability at Lake Macquarie City Council

In our Jobs in Focus series, CouncilJobs dives deep into new and emerging council jobs to showcase roles that are both interesting and in high demand. Here we look at the possibilities of a career in Sustainability. Read More

It's a Hiring Frenzy at Councils

In 2018, the urgent recruitment drive that started in July 2017 by Australian and New Zealand Councils, has continued. The backlog in unfilled positions in NSW is understandable, given the end of the 12 month (and longer in many cases) hiring freeze caused by the forced amalgamations of councils. Yet the current demand for skilled professionals is nationwide and reflects the infrastructure development focus of most councils. We’re also seeing new interest from across the Tasman from New Zealand councils seeking to fill positions with the best talent they can find and help people make the move. The roles in highest demand across the board now are; Planners – to deal with unprecedented housing and commercial construction ratesEngineers – to manage existing ageing infrastructure and bring new projects to lifeEnvironmental experts, from waste and sustainability to water and drainage to manage the growth in population associat… Read More

Earn While You Learn - Councils & The Graduate Roadmap

Earn while you learn - Councils and the Graduate Roadmap Coming out of university and into the workforce can be a challenging time. To help you get a better idea of the process of graduate recruitment and why you should consider taking on a local government role, we sat down with graduate engineers (or soon to be) Lachlan Neal and Avinash (Avi) Singh from UTS and UNSW respectively, both currently employed with the City of Ryde... Read More

Career Tips From an Experienced Engineer

CouncilJobs recently sat down for a chat with experienced council engineer Anthony Ogle as part of a series of interviews designed to illustrate that great careers can be had in councils.

Who is Anthony Ogle?
Having worked in council roles for 37 years, Anthony is no stranger to the inner-workings of a council. Starting in 1980 as a cadet engineer at Windsor Council, his illustrious and rewarding... Read More

Recent Council Recruitment Trends

Looking at the big picture of recruitment advertising occasionally uncovers interesting trends. Analysis of recruitment advertising of Australian councils by job type over the last 12 months, reveals some surprises. Councils are known to be very stable employers with low levels of attrition typically less than 10% per year on average vs more than 20% per year in the private sector. As well, many unique skillsets are sought by Councils and these can cover over 200 job categories, almost half of which are unique to the sector...  Read More

Four Tips For a Successful Job Application

We’re often asked by new subscribers if we have any inside info on how to get a job in council. So, this post has some suggestions based on what we’ve learned from dealing with CouncilJobs advertisers and subscribers for almost 20 years.  Read More