SEEK Employment Report- March 2024

All states and territories recorded job ad increases in March, with the two territories outpacing the rest of the country; the Australian Capital Territory grew 7.7% and Northern Territory rose 4.2%.

Ad volumes grew in Victoria for only the second time in 12 months, up 2.4% from February. A 9.7% rise in Administration & Office Support roles drove up the overall volume for the state, whereas Hospitality & Tourism jobs dropped 8.9%.

New South Wales also recorded its largest rise in volumes in two years, increasing 2.6% m/m. This was due predominantly to a 7.9% rise in ads for Accounting roles.

Applications per job ad rose in most states and territories, with Tasmania (-3%) and Western Australia (-1%) the exceptions.

Aside from minor job ad volume declines in Trades & Services (0.4%), Hospitality & Tourism (-0.6%) and Mining, Resources & Energy (-0.1%), job ads in all other industries increased in March.

Increased demand for workers in Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (3.8%) and Administration & Office Support (4.9%) were responsible for the overall rise in ad volumes.

Ads for Information & Communications Technology roles rose for the second time in as many months, up 5.1%. This is the first time the industry has recorded consecutive months of ad increases in over two years.

From a quarterly perspective the rate of decline in job ads has slowed, with most sectors recording only small changes in ad volumes q/q, compared to significantly greater decline the quarter prior.

Applications per job ad rose in almost all industries, with a 10% jump in Healthcare & Medical roles. Accounting, Retail & Consumer Products and Education & Training all saw 4% more applications per job ad in February. 

 

Figure 4: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (March 2024 vs February 2024) – Ordered by job ad volume

-ENDS-

Banner photo by Anna Shvets.

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.