SEEK Employment Report - January

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

National Insights:

• Job ads rose 0.7% m/m and are up 1.1% y/y.

• Applications per job ad fell 1.8% m/m in December 2025, marking the sixth month of incremental decline, though levels remain elevated.

State andTerritory Insights: 

• Job ads increased m/m in most states and territories, with the fastest growth coming from Tasmania (1.0%), Western Australia (0.8%) and South Australia (0.8%).

• The Australian Capital Territory was the only state or territory to record a monthly drop in ad volumes (-0.2% m/m).

Industry Insights:

• Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (1.0% m/m) and Construction (1.2% m/m) were key contributors to January’s overall rise in job ads.

• Information & Communication Technology fell -0.9% m/m, while Education & Training registered one of the largest monthly declines at -1.7% m/m, extending the softening that began in late 2025.

SEEK Senior Economist Dr Blair Chapman says:

“In seasonally adjusted terms, this January was the fastest growing since January 2021. This means we now have three consecutive months of trend growth. 

“This month, like much of the past quarter, demand growth was concentrated in cyclical, goods-linked sectors such as Construction and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics, while many professional and service-based roles continued to retreat.

“The labour market is neither accelerating nor declining. Instead, it appears to be stabilising at a subdued level. Whether this modest momentum can be sustained will depend on business confidence, consumer spending, and the trajectory of interest rates in the months ahead.”

National Trends

Job ads rose 0.7% m/m in January, marking a full quarter of growth. Annually ad volumes have risen 1.1% y/y, and after rising just 0.1% y/y in December, this marks the first consecutive months of annual growth in three years. 

Applications per job ad fell 1.8% m/m. Despite consistent decline since June, levels remain elevated compared to pre-COVID norms, up compared to January 2020. 

Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m

State and Territory Trends

January brought a widespread monthly lift in ad volumes, particularly in the west and smaller states.

Tasmania led the increase at 1.0% m/m, recording consecutive monthly rises for the first time since the start of 2024. This was partly caused by a 1.2% m/m jump in Healthcare & Medical job ads, the largest hiring industry in the state. Monthly rises were also recorded in Western Australia and South Australia (both 0.8% m/m), Queensland (0.6% m/m), New South Wales (0.3% m/m) and Victoria (0.1% m/m). 

Only the Australian Capital Territory declined (-0.2% m/m), while the Northern Territory remained flat. Both territories have recorded double-digit annual decline, with falling demand for workers in most of their largest industries including Healthcare & Medical (-10.8%) in the Northern Territory and Information & Communication Technology (-18.1%) in the capital. 

Despite monthly rises, job ads in New South Wales and Victoria remained below January 2025 levels. This is due in part to lower job ad volumes in Education & Training, Information & Communication Technology, and Healthcare & Medical roles within the two states. 

Figure 2: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing i) January 2026 to December 2025 (m/m) and ii) January 2026 to January 2025 (y/y).

Industry Trends

Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics rose 1.0% m/m in January, maintaining its position as a key driver of national growth. Construction grew 1.2% for a second month and Trades & Services roles also maintained steady momentum with 0.3% monthly growth, building on consistent demand throughout the holiday period.

Information & Communication Technology softened 0.9% m/m, continuing the declining trend which began in mid-2022.Hospitality & Tourism rose 0.8% month-on-month, improving after the year-end lull, while Retail & Consumer Products posted a modest 0.4% monthly gain. Education & Training registered one of the sharpest monthly drops at -1.7% m/m, while Healthcare & Medical slipped -0.6% m/m, a decline for a traditionally resilient sector entering the new year.

Taking a quarterly view, much of the growth over recent months has been concentrated in the Construction and Industrial sectors, with Engineering roles up 4.2% q/q and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics rising 3.6%. The Public Sector on the other hand has been in decline across the board this quarter as has much of the Professional Services and Consumer Services sectors.

Table 1: Top 5 industries for quarterly growth

Figure 3: National SEEK job ad percentage change by industry (January 2026 vs December 2025) – Ordered by job ad volume

ENDS

Banner image photo by Kampus Production.

The data contained in this report can be downloaded here. 

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.

To improve this index and continuously ensure its market accuracy, SEEK has recently implemented two main changes: i) Reporting on trend estimates rather than seasonally adjusted estimates from August 2025 onwards and ii) The inclusion of company listings in the SEI from November 2025.

The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including a) the trend adjustments applied to the SEI; and b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI.

Caution is recommended when interpreting trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks. 

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 ads) to net variables (removing duplicate job ads). 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.