I hear both sides of this market every week.

Candidates tell me the market is dead. They have applied for role after role, heard nothing back and genuinely believe nobody is hiring.

Employers tell me the opposite. They have jobs open, strong salaries attached to them and still cannot get the people they want to move.

Meanwhile, across the active roles and multi-hire searches we are working on at Telos Co, there is more than $4 million in annual remuneration sitting on the table.

That tells me the whole story cannot simply be “there are no jobs”, and it cannot simply be “there are no candidates”.

The jobs exist. The people exist. The gap is somewhere in between.

The numbers tell an interesting story

Some of our specialist searches make that pretty obvious.

We currently have searches where the candidate pipeline has included:

• 200 candidates for a Chief Operating Officer search
• 131 candidates for a Senior Civil Engineer search
• 96 candidates for a Principal Civil Designer search
• 94 candidates for a Design Manager search
• More than 70 candidates for another Principal water role

Those numbers do not mean there are 70, 100 or 131 perfect candidates sitting there waiting for an offer.

Quite the opposite.

Some are wrong technically. Some are in the wrong location. Some are not interested. Some never respond. Some are happy where they are. Some are already earning more than the advertised range. Some genuinely like the opportunity but simply cannot make the move stack up financially.

That last point matters more than I think many hiring conversations acknowledge.

The cost of somebody’s life has changed

Australia has lived through a significant repricing of everyday life.

National dwelling values were around 40.2% higher over the five years to March 2026. In Brisbane, the increase over that same period was more than 80%.

National rents rose 40.6% over the five years to June 2026, adding roughly $204 per week to the median rental commitment.

Fuel tells a similar story. The ACCC reported that average retail petrol prices across Australia’s five largest cities were 142.0 cents per litre in the June quarter of 2021.

The cheapest bowser near me this morning was showing 287.3¢/L for diesel and 236.5¢/L for unleaded.

That is not an economic index. That is what somebody sees while standing at a servo wondering how much it is going to cost to fill the car.

Wages have risen too, but household budgets have not magically caught up. The ABS reported wage growth of 3.2% in the year to June 2026, while CPI rose 3.8% over the same period.

This matters enormously when we talk about recruitment.

Someone can love your job and still not be able to afford to take it

A candidate can genuinely love your business, like the manager, be excited by the project, believe in the purpose and see the career opportunity.

They can still say no.

The reason is simple. Their mortgage does not care how interesting the project is. Their rent does not care that the culture is good. Their fuel bill does not care that there is a strong leadership team. Their childcare, groceries, insurance and electricity bills do not disappear because the job sounds exciting.

The move still has to work financially.

That does not make candidates greedy. It makes them human.

Changing jobs also carries risk. Depending on the individual, they may be weighing up:

• A new probation period
• A different manager and team
• A longer commute
• Changes to flexibility
• Different bonus or benefit arrangements
• A new culture
• Relocation
• Family considerations
• The possibility that the new role simply does not turn out as promised

When somebody is already employed and reasonably happy, an employer is not simply asking, “Do you like our job?”

The real question is:

“Is this opportunity sufficiently better than what you already have to justify changing your life?”

That is a very different proposition.

Employers have a legitimate frustration too

I understand why employers get frustrated.

They may genuinely have a strong opportunity. They may be paying what they believe is good money. They may have interesting projects, good leaders and a decent workplace.

Then the advertisement goes live.

Applications are weak. The shortlist is small. The people they really want are not applying.

Recruiters approach experienced candidates and hear:

• “Not interested.”
• “Happy where I am.”
• “The salary is not enough.”
• “Wrong location.”
• “Call me next year.”

Eventually somebody says, “There just aren’t any people.”

Except there usually are.

Finding somebody and persuading somebody to move are two completely different things.

This is where both sides are talking past each other

Candidates look at the employment market and say:

“There are no jobs.”

Employers look at the same market and say:

“There are no people.”

Both sides are seeing a genuine problem but they are simply seeing different parts of it.

For candidates, the issue might be visibility. They may be applying through job boards to roles attracting large volumes of applications while never seeing the opportunities being discussed quietly before an advertisement appears.

Their CV may describe responsibilities rather than outcomes. They may be applying too broadly. They may not know which projects are being funded, which organisations are building teams or where future demand is emerging.

For employers, the issue might be something entirely different:

• Salary positioning
• An unrealistic brief
• Geography
• A slow recruitment process
• A vague employee value proposition
• Poor candidate communication
• Expecting passive candidates to behave like active jobseekers

None of this means Australia’s skills shortages are imaginary. They are not.

What I do think is dangerous is allowing “skills shortage” to become the explanation for every difficult vacancy.

Sometimes the problem is scarcity. Sometimes it is salary. Sometimes it is the brief. Sometimes it is timing. Sometimes it is geography. Sometimes it is the recruitment process.

Sometimes the right candidate simply has no compelling reason to leave what they already have.

Salary data by itself is not enough

For years, recruitment markets have produced salary guides.

They are useful, but they are not enough.

Knowing that a Principal Engineer earns somewhere between X and Y does not tell you:

• Where the work is coming from
• Which projects have actually been funded
• Which projects are moving from planning into design
• Which projects are approaching procurement or construction
• Which organisations are growing
• Which disciplines will be required next
• Which geographic markets are tightening
• Who will be competing for the same people six or twelve months from now

That is why we are building Australian Water Infrastructure Intelligence.

It is not intended to be another salary guide.

It is intended to become a broader water-sector market intelligence resource that connects:

• Projects
• Investment
• Employers
• Locations
• Workforce demand
• Current opportunities
• Future demand
• Market remuneration

Those things do not operate independently.

A funded infrastructure programme eventually becomes a workforce requirement. A major procurement creates demand across owners, consultants, contractors and suppliers. Multiple projects starting in one region can suddenly change what an Electrical Engineer, Project Manager, Construction Supervisor or Design Manager is worth in that local talent market.

Vacancies are often lagging indicators.

The interesting information usually exists before the advertisement does.

Better information helps both sides

Candidates should be able to understand where the work is going, who is growing, where their skills may become more valuable, what people with similar experience are actually being paid and what opportunities may exist six or twelve months from now.

Employers should be asking equally important questions about who else will need the same people, what the market is paying, where those people can realistically be sourced from, what would genuinely make them move and when the pipeline should start being built.

That is the gap we want to help close.

Not by telling candidates that every employer should simply pay more.

Not by telling employers that every difficult search is their fault.

The aim is to give both sides a clearer picture of the market they are actually operating in.

There are jobs

We are currently featuring 19 live opportunities through this campaign across water, engineering, infrastructure, construction, automation and project delivery.

They range from graduate opportunities through to senior technical leadership and roles paying more than $200,000.

The point of this article is bigger than those vacancies, though.

Those jobs are simply evidence of what is happening underneath the market.

There is work. There are people. There is investment. There are projects coming. There are also genuine shortages, financial pressures and increasingly complex career decisions.

The challenge is connecting all of it.

If you are considering your next move, talk to Jenny Foden or me.

You do not need to be actively applying for jobs to have a confidential conversation.

If none of our current opportunities are right, stay close anyway.

Between Telos Co, the Utility Leaders Podcast and the upcoming Australian Water Infrastructure Intelligence, we intend to make more of this market visible.

Because the next opportunity usually exists before you officially start looking for it.