Employment Reports

SEEK Employment Report - November 2023

December 11, 2023

NATIONAL INSIGHTS:

Job ads declined 4.3% in November.
Job ad volumes are 13.6% higher than November 2019.
Applications per job ad rose 2.9% from the month prior..

STATE & TERRITORY INSIGHTS:

Apart from South Australia (0.2%), job ads fell month-on-month (m/m) in all states as well as the Northern Territory.
New South Wales (-7.1%) dropped the most, followed by Victoria (-6.3%).

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS:

Every industry, aside from Insurance & Superannuation (1.6%), recorded a m/m decline in job ads.
Consulting & Strategy had the biggest fall in November (-18.7%), followed by Retail & Consumer Products (-7.9%).

*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to October data.

Of the November data, Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ, says:

“Since peaking mid last year, job ads have moderated, but remain above pre-pandemic levels.

“A fall in job ads in November is to be expected as hiring winds down, but the fact that job ads are still over 13% higher than November 2019 shows demand for workers is strong, despite the trend in most industries this year.

“Professional Services is the only sector to have recorded a decline in job ads since 2019, due mainly to falling demand for workers in Information & Communication Technology, Consulting & Strategy and Banking & Financial Services. All other sectors remain higher than pre-pandemic averages, some significantly so.”

NATIONAL INSIGHTS

Job ad volumes fell 4.3% in November. They are now 20.2% lower year-on-year (y/y) but 13.6% higher compared to November 2019.

The decline was due to drops in ad volumes in all but one industry, Insurance & Superannuation (-1.6%), and in most states and the Northern Territory.

Due, in part, to the falling job ad numbers, applications per job ad continue to grow, rising 2.9% in October, and in almost every industry. Levels are now 82.8% higher y/y and are on par with October 2019.

Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m November 2022 to November 2023

Figure 2: National, state and territory and metro/ regional job ad growth/decline comparing November 2023 to: i) October 2023 (m/m), and below ii) November 2022 (y/y).

STATE & TERRITORY INSIGHTS

Ad volumes fell in most states and in the Northern Territory in November. A marginal rise in South Australia (0.2%) and no change m/m in the Australian Capital Territory were the only exceptions.

New South Wales led the monthly fall in job ads, down 7.1%, the largest decline for the state in over two years. Aside from Insurance & Superannuation, which rose 5.8%, every other industry in New South Wales recorded falling job ad numbers.

In Victoria, relatively large drops in job ads in some large industries led to the state recording the second largest monthly drop in volumes: including Real Estate & Property (-14.0%), Retail & Consumer Products (-13.0%) and Sales (-11.9%).

Applications per job ad rose from the month prior in Victoria (7%), New South Wales (4%) and the Northern Territory (3%). Everywhere else, application levels dropped.

Figure 3: Major state job ad trends: November 2019 to November 2023

Index: 100 = 2013 avg

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Insurance & Superannuation was the only industry where job ad volumes increased in November, increasing for the first time since July. All other industries fell m/m, with the overall decline led by the largest industries by ad volume; Trades & Services (-4.6%), Healthcare & Medical (-3.8%) and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (-5.6%).

Applications per job ad rose from the month prior in most industries, the greatest being Retail & Consumer Products (11%), though not in some key disciplines with notable talent shortages, such Education & Training (-4%) and Healthcare & Medical (-2%).

When compared to pre-pandemic, it’s clear that the greatest change in job ads has occurred in Professional Services, with Information & Communication Technologies (-42.0%) and Banking & Financial Services (-40.4%) down significantly compared to November 2019.

Job ads in all other sectors are now higher than they were in 2019, particularly in the Public Sector (43.0%) and Industrial Sector (41.6%).

Table 1: Job ad growth by Sector November 2023 v November 2019.

Figure 4: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (October 2023 vs November 2023) – Ordered by job ad volume

-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.