SEEK Employment Report - June 2024
NATIONAL INSIGHTS
Job ads declined 1.5% month-on-month (m/m) and are 17.1% lower year-on-year (y/y).
Applications per job ad rose 3.0% m/m and are 61.6% higher y/y*.
STATE & TERRITORY INSIGHTS
Job ads fell in all states and territories, and the most in the Australian Capital Territory (-5.1%).
Ad volumes have fallen 24.2% y/y in Victoria and 21.7% in New South Wales.
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
The Consumer Services sector recorded the largest decline in jobs ads in June, which includes an 8.1% drop in Hospitality & Tourism.
A decline in Healthcare & Medical job ad volumes also contributed to the overall job ad decline for June, down 4.4%.
*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to May data.
Of the June data, Leigh Broderick, Head of ANZ Market Data and Customer Analytics says:
“The employment market continues to cool, with job ad volumes down 1.5% month-on-month. There was a decline in each state and territory in June.
“Job ads for roles in the Legal industry have grown over the past year. Real Estate & Property has also remained relatively resilient over the past twelve months amid a demand-heavy and supply-short housing market.
“By contrast, the Information & Communication Technology and Hospitality & Tourism industries, which have faced significant challenges this year, have seen job ad volumes fall by almost a third year-on-year.”
NATIONAL INSIGHTS
The market continues to cool, with ad volumes falling 1.5% in June, and down 17.1% y/y.
All states and territories contributed to the national decline, led by Victoria (-2.2%) and Western Australia (-3.7%).
Ad volumes within Consumer Services have fallen to the greatest extent y/y, down 4.6%, with Hospitality & Tourism leading the decline (-8.1%).
Competition for roles is extremely high, with applications per job ad rising 3% in May.
Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m (June 2023 to June 2024)
STATE & TERRITORY INSIGHTS
The Australian Capital Territory recorded the largest decline in ad volumes in June, dropping 5.1%. After a rise in volumes in May, Tasmania fell 3.9%.
The largest decline y/y was in the most populous states of Victoria (-24.2%) and New South Wales (-21.7%), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (-15.7%). In Victoria, Hospitality & Tourism job ads are down 42% y/y.
Queensland has been the most resilient state over the past year, with volumes falling at a much slower pace compared to the other East Coast states, down 7.5% y/y. This is due to increasing hiring activity in Construction and Real Estate & Property, among other industries.
Applications per ad rose in all states and territories, and to the greatest degree in the Northern Territory (7%) and Tasmania (6%).
Figure 2: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing June 2024 to May 2024 (m/m)
Table 1: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing June 2024 to June 2023 (y/y)
Figure 3: Major state job ad trends: June 2020 to June 2024. Index = 100 (2013 average)
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Healthcare & Medical roles led the overall decline in ad numbers (-4.4%). As the Victorian Government announced a hiring freeze for many hospital roles in late June, Healthcare & Medical roles in the state fell 9.1% m/m.
The Hospitality & Tourism industry continues to record a significant drop in ad volume, down 8.1% m/m and 28.3% y/y.
Science & Technology roles bucked the trend with a 14.8% increase in job ads m/m, albeit from a small base.
Compared to last year, Legal is the only industry where demand has grown (1.4%). Real Estate & Property (-2.1%) has recorded the smallest ad volume decline y/y.
Competition among candidates rose in most industries, with applications per ad up 7% in Call Centre & Customer Service, 6% in Retail & Consumer Products and 6% in Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics.
Figure 4: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (June 2024 vs May 2024) – 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.