Employment Reports

SEEK Employment Report - April 2024

May 20, 2024

NATIONAL INSIGHTS:

Job ads fell 4.7% m/m and are 18.6% lower year-on-year (y/y).
Applications per job ad jumped 8.6% from the month prior*.

STATE & TERRITORY INSIGHTS:

Job ads declined in all states and territories in April.
Applications per job ad rose everywhere except the Australian Capital Territory, where they fell 3% in March.

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS:

Job ads declined in all industries, apart from Insurance & Superannuation, which rose 3.6% m/m.
Job ads in many industries remain higher than 2019 levels, including Trades & Services (36.5%) and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (33.4%).

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

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

“Job ad volumes have alternated between month-on-month increases and decreases since the beginning of the year. In April, ads fell by 4.7%, the largest decline in five months. This can, in part, be put down to this year’s particular concentration of public holidays disrupting hiring activity at the beginning and end of the month.

“Information & Communication Technology ads, which grew in March, took a notable downturn in April, dropping 10.8%.

“Competition for live roles continues to grow, with applications per job ad rising significantly in March, and in almost all industries. Hirers are therefore holding a lot of power in the market with many willing candidates for the roles available.”

NATIONAL INSIGHTS

The trend of rising and falling monthly job ad volumes continued in April. The drop of 4.7% is the highest rate of decline to be recorded since October.

All states and territories contributed to the fall in volumes, led by the Australian Capital Territory (11.5%).

Applications per job ad jumped 8.6% from the month prior, the greatest monthly rise recorded in over a year.

Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m April 2023 to April 2024

STATE & TERRITORY INSIGHTS

Job ad numbers fell in every state and territory in April.

In some states, such as South Australia (-5.0%) and Western Australia (-3.8%), and in the Northern Territory (-6.0%) and Australian Capital Territory (-11.5%), the monthly decline has been the largest in over twelve months.

Applications per job ad rose from February to March in all states and the Northern Territory, but declined by 3% in the Australian Capital Territory. In Western Australia, applications per job ad are now at their highest level on record.

Figure 2: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing April 2024 to March 2024 (m/m)

Table 1: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing April 2024 to April 2023 (y/y).

Figure 3: Major state job ad trends: April 2020 to April 2024

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Job ads declined in all industries m/m, apart from Insurance & Superannuation (3.6%).

Demand for workers in Information & Communication Technology (ICT) dropped 10.8% in April, bringing national volumes in this industry near to historic lows. This was most felt in Victoria, where ICT ad volumes declined 10.6% m/m.

Despite ad volumes declining in most industries over the past year, many industries remain higher now than pre-COVID. The two largest industries by volume are significantly higher compared to April 2019: Trades & Services (36.5%) and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (33.4%).

Applications per job ad rose in almost all industries, with sizeable jumps in Sales (14%), Hospitality & Tourism (13%) and Healthcare & Medical (12%).

Table 2: Month-on-month applications per job ad growth – ten largest industries

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

-ENDS-

Banner photo by Lukas.

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.