How’s The Market May 2025

This will be out last monthly “How’s the Market?” blog; even with Trump and wars we think a quarterly cadence will give us some more meaningful trends to talk to.

So, how is the market?

As predicted last month, Labor was returned to power, and the Aussie economy remains in balance with stable employment and inflation resulting in another interest rate cut. What does that mean for recruitment? We spent 2 days at The FGA Conference where 450 FMCG & Retail leaders discussed industry trends. The consolidated view was “It’s tough out there, but we feel quietly bullish. We will bring in talent, but in small numbers, which means every hire count. We need to raise the bar; we can’t accept the best of a Seek ad or LinkedIn messaging campaign and that means we will want to access your networks.”  We’ll take that.

Taking a look back at the last 3 blogs we’ve talked about the hot Sales Director market being a lightning rod for a storm in NAM and NBM recruitment. Well, with 8 new FMCG Sales Directors having been appointed we can guarantee they will not take too long to drive some organisational change. So, reach out to Andrew Cannock, Bernice Goodwin and Beth Holgate in our sales & category team to sense check your career pathway now. We’ll report back in 3 months with a summary of how busy they’ve been.

Marketing has been a steady burn all year and it is getting a little hotter. Ben Carnegie’s portfolio of assignments is impressive and the Sales & Marketing Collective this month shows you how busy the market is becoming with more marketing than sales roles for the first time ever.

It’s been a long wait for Category to pick up. We’re not there yet, but with a new Category Director assignment in a tier 1 kicking off under Andrew Cannock, we are talking to all the leaders out there…and, like we started this blog, they are quietly bullish about the market and the growing role of Category.

To conclude, we’ll bring you more macro insights and market trends in our new Quarterly How’s the Market! From the [axr] team, thanks for your ongoing support.