SEEK Employment Report - New South Wales recovery drives national job ad growth in September

STATE OF THE NATION: NSW RECOVERY DRIVES NATIONAL JOB AD GROWTH

SEEK’s latest Employment Report shows national job ad volumes have increased by 6.0% m/m in September and are 24.7% higher nationally than in the same month in 2019. This is the first m/m growth in job ads since April 2021.

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ, comments: “A particularly strong result in New South Wales has led to a month-on-month increase of 6.0% in national job ads.

“The COVID-19 roadmap announcements in New South Wales and Victoria have encouraged businesses to move ahead with rehiring and preparing for the summer holiday period.

“In New South Wales, job ads increased by more than 20%, with roles in Hospitality & Tourism jumping by 130% month-on-month.

“Factors contributing to this growth include replacing roles which were lost, preparing for the end of restrictions, and getting ready for the summer holiday period.”

Applications per ad levels remain low despite traffic to SEEK.com.au being stable at around 34 million visits in September.

Kendra Banks continues: “Many hirers are still finding it difficult to recruit. Month-on-month applications per job ad are down slightly by 0.8% nationally and remain significantly below pre-pandemic levels, down by 34.9% when comparing September 2021 to September 2019.

“Australians continue to be cautious when considering their next career move.”

Table 1: National, state and territory job ad growth/decline comparing September 2021 to: i) August 2021 (m/m); ii) September 2020 (y/y) and; iii) September 2019.

STATE OF THE STATES: GROWTH ACROSS ALL STATES EXCEPT VICTORIA

The latest SEEK job ad data shows that most states have a m/m growth, with a slight decline in Victoria.

Kendra Banks continues: “Victoria was the only state or territory in Australia that did not have more ads posted in September than in August 2021. We would expect to see Victoria follow New South Wales with growth in job ad volumes following the announced easing of restrictions in October. Despite dropping slightly last month, Victoria is still showing over 10% more ads than two years ago.

“Compared to September 2019, before the pandemic, there is quite an increase in roles across most states, with the majority of the states and territories demonstrating growth between 44.8% in Queensland up to 76.1% in Tasmania. The exception being the ACT which has 6.7% fewer roles.”

Figure 1: State job ad volumes – September 2019 to September 2021

Figure 2: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by state (September 2021 vs August 2021)

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY SECTORS: CUSTOMER-FACING ROLES GROW IN NSW AND QLD

The industries that were impacted the hardest in August are the industries that have shown significant growth in September, particularly customer-facing roles.

Kendra Banks comments: “As we have seen throughout the whole course of the pandemic, as soon as restrictions begin to ease, customer-facing roles return quickly to site.

“A trend throughout the pandemic is that the industries impacted the hardest can also be the first to bounce back.

“For example, job ads in Retail & Consumer Products dropped 8.9% nationally in August but grew 20.6% in September. Hospitality & Tourism job ads dropped 19.0% in August and increased by 28.5% in September.

“There are positive signs across all industries, with job ad volumes increasing in hospitality, tourism, retail and trades & services”.

The table below shows the top three industries driving growth or decline in the case of Victoria.

Table 2: The top three industries driving growth (decline in red) in each state and percentage growth in brackets (Comparing August 2012 to September 2021)

KEY:

• Information & Communications Technology (ICT)
• Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (MT&L)
• Community Services & Development (CS&D)
• Administration & Office Support (A&OS)
• Construction (Con.)
• Accounting (Acc.)

Figure 3: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (September 2021 vs August 2021)

Click for the latest SEEK Employment Report data or for more employment insights or career advice please visit SEEK’s Hiring Advice or SEEK's Career Advice

MEDIA NOTE: When reporting SEEK data, we request that you attribute SEEK as the source and refer to SEEK as an employment marketplace.