Optimism is relatively high in the Australian business community, despite challenges in a number of markets, reports recruitment specialist Michael Page Australia.

The firm’s H1 2013 Michael Page Australia Employment Index shows that 24% of firms intend to increase staff numbers over the first six months of this year, compared with 22% looking to decrease – while 46% of the field of 2,000 individuals responding to the survey suggested hiring intentions were being impacted by the Australian dollar’s high value.

The Global Spotlight on Australia (p17, Recruiter March 2013) sees Tim Naylor, manager for technical recruiter Morson in the country, describing 2013 as potentially a “holding year” for the market, as global economic uncertainty means projects are given “a bit of a wake-up call”, and September seeing a federal election in Australia.

Speaking to Recruiter for the same article, Richard Paisley, founder of specialist executive search firm Proco Global Group, which recently launched in Sydney, describes the cost of setting up in the country as “eye-watering” due to the strength of the Australian dollar – currently A$1 gets you £0.69, while it was briefly worth less than £0.40 in late 2008.

The difficulty of starting up an office in Australia, Paisley adds, is heightened by a further margin because in his view the procedure is “slightly more bureaucratic than in the UK”, which he says “for all its faults is still the easiest place to set up in the world”.

Phillip Guest, regional managing director for Michael Page Australia, New Zealand and Japan, comments: “For those employers we surveyed whose businesses are being impacted by the high Australian dollar, 54% said it was affecting their hiring intentions and activity, such as through headcount freezes, replacement hiring only or hiring for revenue-generation roles.

“This issue is further compounded in some sectors such as retail, which is experiencing structural change at the same time as dealing with the high dollar.”