Should You Keep Job Ads Running All Year?

September 9, 2026

Most businesses advertise jobs for one reason: somebody needs to be hired.

A tradie resigns, a new project lands or the workload becomes too much for the existing crew. The business puts up a job ad, finds someone, takes the advertisement down and forgets about recruitment until the next vacancy appears.

For some trade businesses, that approach makes perfect sense. For others, constantly switching recruitment on and off means they are always starting from zero when the next electrician, plumber, fitter, carpenter or mechanic is needed.

That raises an interesting question: should you keep job ads running all year?

The answer depends on how frequently you hire, how difficult your roles are to fill and what you do with the candidates who apply. An always-on job ad can become a useful recruitment pipeline, but only when there is a genuine and transparent reason for keeping it active.

What Is an Evergreen Job Ad?

An evergreen job ad is an advertisement that remains active for an extended period rather than being created for one immediate vacancy.

The employer may regularly need workers in that occupation because of growth, turnover, recurring projects or ongoing workforce requirements.

Instead of waiting for each vacancy to appear, applications are collected continuously.

For example, a large electrical contractor that regularly hires qualified electricians could maintain an ongoing expression of interest. A mining contractor might continuously look for heavy diesel mechanics or fitters. A growing plumbing company could keep accepting applications from qualified plumbers even when the immediate workforce is close to capacity.

The important distinction is that evergreen recruitment should represent a genuine recurring employment requirement.

It should not involve pretending there is an immediate vacancy when there isn't one.

If you are building a pipeline rather than recruiting for a position that starts immediately, tell candidates.

An advertisement titled around ongoing opportunities or expressions of interest can achieve that without misleading applicants.

When Keeping Job Ads Running Makes Sense

Always-on recruitment works best when the business hires the same type of worker repeatedly.

Imagine an electrical contractor employing 80 electricians. Over a year, some employees will leave, projects will start and additional workers may be needed as the business grows.

Recruiting electricians is therefore not an occasional activity. It is an ongoing workforce requirement.

The same can apply to mining contractors, industrial maintenance businesses, construction companies, labour hire firms and larger trade businesses.

Evergreen recruitment can be particularly useful for occupations that consistently take time to fill.

Jobs and Skills Australia's 2025 Occupation Shortage List found that almost one in two Technician and Trades Worker occupations remained in shortage. Recruitment conditions move over time, but many employers still cannot assume the right qualified tradesperson will appear immediately when a vacancy is advertised.

Keeping a genuine pipeline open gives the employer more time.

Instead of trying to find an experienced fitter within two weeks, the business may already have spoken with several fitters over the previous few months.

That changes recruitment from an emergency response into an ongoing process.

When You Probably Shouldn't Keep Ads Running

Not every trade business needs permanent job advertising.

If you employ three people and hire another tradesperson once every four years, keeping a paid job advertisement running continuously probably makes little financial sense.

The same applies to highly specific positions that are unlikely to exist again.

If you need one specialised technician for a particular project and have no foreseeable need for another, the advertisement should usually finish when the position is filled.

Candidate experience matters too.

Imagine applying for what appears to be an immediate electrician vacancy, only to discover the company has no actual positions and simply collects applications throughout the year.

That can frustrate applicants and damage trust.

If there is no current vacancy, describe the advertisement appropriately. An expression of interest for future electrician opportunities is different from advertising "Electrician – Immediate Start."

Evergreen recruitment should create a useful pipeline, not generate applications the business has no intention of reviewing.

Work Out the Cost of Starting From Zero

Keeping an advertisement active costs money on many job platforms, so employers naturally question whether the expense is worthwhile.

But recruitment also has a cost when advertising is switched off.

Suppose an experienced maintenance fitter resigns unexpectedly. The remaining crew covers the workload with overtime while the business advertises, screens candidates, interviews and waits for the successful applicant to give notice at their current employer.

The vacancy could affect the business for weeks or months.

Compare that with an employer that already has several suitable fitters in its recruitment pipeline.

The business can contact those candidates immediately while simultaneously advertising the vacancy.

The value of evergreen recruitment therefore should not be measured purely by how many people are hired directly from each advertisement.

Consider whether it reduces time-to-hire, increases the number of suitable candidates available and helps the business respond faster when workforce requirements change.

For businesses that hire frequently, those benefits can outweigh the advertising cost.

For businesses that hire rarely, they probably won't.

Choose Which Roles Should Stay Open

You do not need to keep every job advertisement running.

Focus on the occupations your business repeatedly struggles to recruit.

An industrial contractor might continuously recruit mechanical fitters and electricians while advertising supervisors and project managers only when specific vacancies arise.

A mining contractor might maintain ongoing campaigns for heavy diesel mechanics, boilermakers and auto electricians because those workers are regularly required across multiple sites.

A residential trade business could maintain an expression of interest for qualified tradespeople if it is steadily expanding crews.

Look at your hiring history.

Which occupations did you recruit more than once during the last year? Which vacancies took the longest to fill? Which workers would you probably hire if an excellent candidate appeared tomorrow?

Those are your strongest evergreen candidates.

There is little point paying to advertise permanently for a role that the business rarely needs.

Always-on recruitment should be targeted.

Be Honest About Whether You're Hiring Now

Transparency is essential.

If there is an immediate vacancy, advertise it as an immediate vacancy.

If you are recruiting for future projects, say that.

If the business is accepting expressions of interest because it regularly hires electricians, fitters or plumbers, explain that clearly.

Candidates should understand what happens after they apply.

You might say that the business is building its team for upcoming projects and is interested in speaking with qualified tradespeople about current and future opportunities.

That still gives people a reason to apply without suggesting that a position definitely starts next Monday.

You can also update evergreen advertisements when circumstances change.

If three immediate vacancies open, change the advertisement to reflect that. Once those positions are filled, return it to an expression-of-interest format if you genuinely want to continue building the pipeline.

Good recruitment marketing should accurately represent the opportunity available at the time.

Don't Leave the Same Job Ad Untouched Forever

Evergreen does not mean forgotten.

An advertisement that has been sitting online unchanged for months can begin to look stale. Candidates may wonder whether the business is genuinely hiring or whether nobody ever checks the applications.

Review ongoing advertisements regularly.

Check whether the pay information remains competitive, whether the job description still reflects the work and whether any requirements have changed.

Look at application quality as well.

If you receive plenty of applicants but almost nobody suitable, leaving the same advertisement online for another six months probably will not solve the problem.

The title may be wrong. The requirements may be too restrictive. The pay may be uncompetitive or missing entirely. The location or roster might be unattractive.

Evergreen recruitment still needs optimisation.

Track where applicants come from and which advertisements eventually produce good hires. Over time, you should become better at recognising which roles benefit from ongoing advertising and which should only be advertised when vacancies exist.

Turn Applications Into a Genuine Talent Pool

Keeping job ads running becomes much more valuable when applications are organised properly.

Do not let candidates disappear into an inbox.

Record strong applicants by trade, location, experience and availability. Note whether you interviewed them previously and whether you would consider hiring them later.

Suppose an electrician applies in February but you do not have the right vacancy available. In May, the business wins another project and suddenly needs three electricians.

That February applicant may now be much more valuable.

The same applies to candidates who were unsuccessful only because another applicant was slightly stronger.

If you would genuinely hire someone under different circumstances, keep that relationship open in accordance with applicable privacy requirements and your recruitment processes.

Your ongoing job advertisements then become the top of a recruitment funnel.

Applications arrive throughout the year, suitable candidates enter the talent pool and immediate vacancies can be filled from both new applicants and people you already know.

That is much more useful than treating every job advertisement as an isolated campaign.

Combine Job Ads With Other Recruitment Channels

Always-on job advertising should not be your only recruitment strategy.

Jobs and Skills Australia says online job boards remain the most widely used recruitment method in Australia, with more than half of employers using them and around 40% reporting that they resulted in a successful hire.

However, trade recruitment also happens heavily outside conventional job advertisements.

JSA's Total New Vacancies data demonstrates the gap particularly clearly. In the November 2025 quarter, its Internet Vacancy Index recorded around 26,900 online advertisements for Automotive and Engineering Trades Workers, while its broader estimate indicated approximately 40,100 actual vacancies.

That means a substantial amount of trade hiring was happening outside conventional online advertising.

Word of mouth, referrals, direct approaches, social media, previous employees and existing candidate databases can all contribute.

For employers struggling to hire, a combination is often stronger than relying on one channel.

Keep the appropriate jobs advertised, but also ask your existing tradies for referrals. Maintain relationships with strong former employees. Keep previous applicants organised and contact people directly when a suitable opportunity appears.

Evergreen recruitment works best as part of a wider recruitment system.

Think Differently About Regional and Hard-to-Fill Roles

Always-on advertising can be particularly useful when suitable candidates are naturally scarce.

Regional and remote employers may have a smaller local workforce to recruit from. FIFO employers may need workers with specific trade backgrounds, site experience and roster preferences. Specialist industrial positions can require combinations of skills that relatively few people possess.

In these situations, the perfect candidate may not be looking for work during the two weeks when your vacancy happens to be advertised.

A longer recruitment window increases the chance of reaching them.

Someone could apply months before the vacancy becomes urgent. Another person may express interest but say they are committed to their current project until November.

Keep those conversations.

When November arrives, that candidate may suddenly be available at exactly the right time.

This is one of the biggest advantages of ongoing recruitment for hard-to-fill positions: the business is no longer relying entirely on who happens to be actively job hunting at one particular moment.

Use Evergreen Recruitment for Growth

Growing trade businesses can benefit significantly from keeping selected recruitment campaigns active.

Imagine a plumbing business with ten plumbers that expects to grow to fifteen over the next year.

Waiting until enough work exists for all five additional positions can create a bottleneck. The business wins the work but then cannot find enough plumbers quickly enough to deliver it.

Recruitment can instead happen progressively.

The employer can maintain an ongoing expression of interest, speak with suitable plumbers and understand who might be available over the coming months.

That does not mean hiring people before there is enough work to support them.

It means understanding the labour market before the workforce requirement becomes urgent.

The same principle applies when tendering for major construction projects or industrial contracts.

You should not promise employment before work is confirmed, but you can build relationships with potential workers and understand the likely recruitment challenge.

Sales planning and workforce planning should communicate with each other.

There is little value winning a large contract if the business has no realistic plan for finding the tradespeople required to deliver it.

Measure Whether Always-On Advertising Is Working

Do not keep paying for job advertisements simply because they have always been there.

Measure them.

Track the number of applications, suitable candidates, interviews and hires each ongoing advertisement produces.

Quality matters more than raw application numbers.

An electrician advertisement receiving 100 applications sounds impressive, but it is not useful if almost nobody holds the qualifications or experience required.

Also measure what happens later.

A candidate who applies in March and gets hired in August should still count as value generated by the ongoing recruitment campaign.

Consider time-to-hire as well. If vacancies are consistently filled faster because you already have suitable candidates available, that is an important benefit.

Eventually, you may discover that some roles justify continuous advertising while others perform better through short, targeted campaigns.

Use that information to allocate the recruitment budget rather than applying the same strategy to every occupation.

Where Tradie Jobs Fits In

Tradie Jobs focuses specifically on Australian trade and blue-collar employment, making it useful for employers recruiting electricians, plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, fitters, boilermakers, welders and other skilled workers.

For an immediate vacancy, create a specific advertisement explaining the work, location, pay and conditions.

For ongoing recruitment, make the purpose equally clear.

If you regularly need electricians, an ongoing expression of interest can help build a pipeline between immediate vacancies. If a new project is expected to require several workers, recruitment can begin before every position becomes urgent.

Use different advertisements where the roles are genuinely different.

A maintenance electrician, construction electrician and FIFO electrician may all hold electrical qualifications, but they are likely to evaluate very different employment opportunities.

The more accurately your advertisement describes the work, the more useful the applications become.

And when a strong tradie applies, do not automatically forget about them because the perfect vacancy does not exist that day.