There are fresh warnings that Australia’s economy is on a path toward a recession.

Australians who have hit the pavement in search of a job recently might have found it tough going, as bosses preference those already on staff for new roles.

“Companies are focusing, at the moment, more on their retention strategy than attraction,” Robert Half director Nicole Gorton said.

“So if they have the opportunity to … upskill because there’s an opportunity gap with somebody and they can plug that with the existing staff, they will do that.”

This matches up with a new Deloitte employment report.

The accounting firm surveyed 84 chief financial officers — or those in charge of the books — from Australia’s top 200 companies.

Deloitte partner David Rumbens said the feedback from those CFOs was that the private sector had entered something of a hiring freeze.

“So they’ve got some confidence with their own business performance but it’s confidence that’s coming out of demand increasing slowly over time, not so much out of increased employment,” he said.

Deloitte expects the unemployment rate, currently at 4.2 per cent, to peak at 4.5 per cent.

It said that means a further 101,500 Australians will become unemployed over the next 12 months.

Canberra University economics professor, Leonora Risse, said these numbers trigger the so-called “Sahm Rule” recession indicator.

“That formula is very much based on the US economy,” she said.

It’s named after the US economist who created it, Dr Claudia Sahm.

The indicator takes the average of the unemployment rate for the past three months.

If that average increases by 0.5 percentage points above the lowest unemployment rate recorded in the prior 12 months it means the economy has entered a recession or is on the path toward one.

“But if we look at the Australian data, if we plug those numbers into the formula, it’s telling us that the rate of increase in Australia’s unemployment rate would be consistent with a pattern that’s heading towards a recession,” Ms Risse said.

A technical recession is generally considered to be two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

Dr Risse said the Sahm Rule was designed to be a flashing economic warning signal to governments.

“Rather than waiting until the numbers eventually come through and look back and say, ‘Oh yeah now we’ve hit a recession.'”

As for those searching for work, recruiter Nicole Gorton said now was not the time to be picky.

“Maybe the role, the salary, the location [or] the industry that you were looking for, maybe look a little bit beyond that,” she said.

“So widen your boundary of what it was, to open up opportunities for yourself, because what historically may have taken four to eight weeks might take 12 to 18 weeks — who knows?”

Economists are also watching employment data like this in the context of any future interest rate decisions.

Ms Risse warned further Reserve Bank talk of possible higher interest rates could accelerate the increase in the unemployment rate.