The recruitment market is inexorably linked with the overall strength of the economy, and Philip Kingdom, founder of Australian recruitment firm PRA, says there are no signs of this abating.

"This year has probably been the busiest we've had for some time. There's lots of vacancies to fill and it's still a candidate-short market. We're seeing lots of contracts coming up and companies are confident that they will have work for some time to come," he says.

According to Kingdom, the IT and technology sectors are currently boom areas for recruiters in Australia, with employers desperate to attract skilled staff from home and abroad.

The IT market is doing particularly well at the moment and this coupled with a candidate shortage has seen salary rises of as much as 25% in some specific technical roles.

"There's a real shortage of skilled staff for IT roles and employers are trying to fill these vacancies with people coming over from abroad — particularly the UK," he says.