Post MBA - where to from here?

So I'm done, whilst I haven't graduated yet, I need to reflect on what's next from here? The Western Australian economy is close to recession and has been in severe downturn since about 2014. The state government has the highest debt in history in both absolute dollar terms and in relation to economic output.

I want to stay employed in the public sector for at least the next couple of years, I have twelve years until I can access my retirement benefits and I have two years until I qualify for my second round of long service leave. In Australia, long service leave is twelve weeks paid leave after fifteen years service to a company. In order to attract high quality candidates, the state government cannot match private sector salaries so conditions of employment have to be competitive. Hence, state government employees qualify for long service leave after seven years of continuous service.

Another benefit of state government employment is the ability to take secondary employment part-time as long as it is authorised. The thinking is the public service wants to recruit staff from the private sector bring job-ready skills, extensive experience and contemporary knowledge to government departments. This allows individuals such as myself to generate a second income, maintain private sector skills and knowledge as well as gain experience in new areas.

As I'm in training and development I would prefer to remain in this field but there are not any current opportunities in the state government as the government has just announced another round of redundancies and plans to rationalise and amalgamate departments. Previously there was an official hiring freeze of six months plus unofficial pressure placed on department heads to not hire as a redundancy pool exists where displaced people sit in a recruitment pool. 

I have nothing to complain about, I have retained my employment and although I will not be receiving any pay increases for the next three years as the state government has capped salary increases. I just have to wait until next year until I get a clearer picture of where I am going, the rest of Australia is moving again, hopefully Western Australia has seen the worst of the downturn.