Unemployment up? What's your story?

Hmm... grim news today that in NSW unemployment is up compared to the rest of our lovely land. Reasons could be that more emigrants are choosing NSW as their new home and are having trouble getting work. The effects of the drought could be taking a tax on country employers. I haven't read the stats (don't have the time at the moment) so can't make a true comment. I can imagine that the next quarter's stats will show a higher unemployment rate as school leavers seek work for a gap year or teens who choose not to go to year 12 or get an apprenticeship look for a job.

What's your experience in your company? Are you employing more people as the GFC(TM) wears off?

And as an aside, if you ARE advertising for jobs, are you using social media as well as conventional methods? I'm noticing lots of jobs in Sydney advertised on Twitter. This is probably the basis of a post on its own realistically.

HR people, are you seeing more or less jobs going through your books? And is there one particular area of Sydney that is really attracting jobseekers?

North Ryde/Macquarie Park in particular in our region is growing exponentially. I'd love to hear from companies in that region about their experiences in filling positions. I have a hunch there are tons of jobs there being filled at a rate of knots.