The best job advert in the world

Tourism Queensland has pulled off a PR coup by pursuing a radical e-recruitment policy. They spent $1.7 million on advertising "the best job in the world" and gained an estimated $100 million dollars worth of publicity. Now that is a super smart recruitment and marketing synergy.
The job is to live in a luxury villa on the island of Hamilton for six months. The job entails exploring Hamilton and adjoining islands and writing about them on his website blog with a view to attracting tourists to Queensland. The successful candidate was Brit Ben Hamilton, a Charity Fund Raiser from Hampshire.

The campaign was centred on a website created by Queenland Tourist Board. The online recruitment process was a huge success attracting 34,684 applications from 200 countries.

Wanted Sheep Shearing Violin Playing Modern Dancer

I know the headline reads like a nightmare act on Britain ’s Got Talent but it demonstrates the current shortages in the UK jobs market. The recent report by Migration Advisory Committee has highlighted the current shortfalls in the UK labour market. They have outlined the roles that even in a recession with rising levels of unemployment are required to meet the UK skills shortage.

Modern Dancers, Classical Musicians, Sheep Shearers and Computer Animators are all areas where employers may have to look outside of the EU for staff. The news isn’t so good for those seeking work as Quantity Surveyors or Site Managers in the construction industries. The massive increase in unemployment for these jobs (up 500%) has resulted in them being removed from the list of roles that non EU citizens can be employed legally for in the UK .

The government is looking to advertise for the shortages overseas in an attempt to attract applications. It seems if you want job security in this volatile market then you should learn to dance, play a classical instrument or create you own computer animations. It’s a strange jobs market at the moment!