SEEK Employment Report - January 2024

After rising in December, job ad volumes grew again in January, up 1.3%. This is the first time since May 2022 that job ads have risen for consecutive months.

The largest industries all recorded greater job ad volumes m/m, as did the three most populous states, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

Candidate demand continues to increase, with applications per job ad increasing 2.1% in December, outpacing growth in advertised jobs.

Job ad volumes rose m/m in most states and territories aside from small declines in Western Australia (-0.2%) and Tasmania (-0.3%).

The Australian Capital Territory recorded the greatest m/m rise in ad volumes, up 4.9%, with a 25.1% rise in Trades & Services roles.

Queensland recorded the next greatest m/m increase in ad volume, due to growth in the Trades & Services (5.5%), Healthcare & Medical (5.2%) and Administration & Office Support (9.0%) industries.

Applications per job ad rose from November to December in all states and territories apart from New South Wales, where levels fell 1%.

Most industries recorded rises in job ads in January, with Retail & Consumer Products (9.6%), Administration & Office Support (5.9%) and Hospitality & Tourism (4.9%) the three greatest drivers of overall growth.

Both Retail & Consumer Products and Hospitality & Tourism, which are heavily reliant on consumer spending, have recorded significant job ad decline over the past year as inflation and cost of living pressures worsened, causing Australians to curb spending habits.

It is notable, therefore, that there has been strong demand for workers in these industries in January, which could be an early sign that consumer sentiment is turning around.

Job ads in Information & Consumer Technology fell 4.0% month-on-month, one of only five industries to record a decline in January.  When compared to pre-COVID January 2020, Information & Consumer Technology and Banking & Finance are the two industries that have recorded the biggest decline in job ads.

 

 

 

 

 

-ENDS-

ABOUT THE SEEK EMPLOYMENT REPORT

The SEEK Employment Report is Australia’s leading employment index and provides a comprehensive overview of the Australian Employment Marketplace. The report includes the SEEK Employment Index (SEI) which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.

NOTES

(1) The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including: a) seasonal adjustments applied to the SEI; b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI; and c) the exclusion of Company Listings (included under Company Profiles) from the SEI

(2) The Covid-19 pandemic led to a high level of volatility in labour market data between April 2020 and March 2022. As a result, caution is recommended when interpreting trend estimates during this period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks

(3) The applications per ad index contains a series break at Jan 2016 when the calculation of this series changed from using gross variables (inclusive of all SEEK job listings) to net variables (removing duplicate job listings). This change has a negligible impact on recent data points, but caution is recommended when interpreting data immediately following the series break, and particularly in 2016 where growth rates have not been adjusted for the series break.

Disclaimer: The Data should be viewed and regarded as standalone information and should not be aggregated with any other information whether such information has been previously provided by SEEK Limited, ("SEEK"). The Data is given in summary form and whilst care has been taken in its preparation, SEEK makes no representations whatsoever about its completeness or accuracy. SEEK expressly bears no responsibility or liability for any reliance placed by you on the Data, or from the use of the Data by you. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately.