SEEK Employment Report - Restrictions impact job ad numbers in July

STATE OF THE NATION: RESTRICTIONS IMPACT JOB ADS IN JULY

The latest SEEK Employment Report reveals that national job ad volumes have dropped by 4.1% m/m. Despite the decline, job ads are still 20.6% higher than the same month in 2019.

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ, comments: “Parts of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia all experienced various forms of lockdown or restrictions during July 2021.

“The restrictions in Greater Sydney, which were in place for the entire month and unfortunately remain ongoing, led to month-on-month job ad volumes declining by 14.2% for the whole state.

“New South Wales employs the largest cohort of people in Australia, and job ad growth or decline in the state will often be reflected in the national figures. For example, in the Hospitality & Tourism industry job ads fell nationally by 30.7% in July, following a drop of 63.3% in New South Wales.”

“Businesses, employers and jobseekers in Victoria may have become more familiar with recruiting remotely, given job ads rose by 4.5% in July despite a two-week lockdown – the state’s fifth experience hiring in those conditions.”

SEEK had around 40 million visits to our website last month. That tells us that Australians are still viewing job ads, but jobseekers are simply not applying at the same rates as they were before COVID-19.

Kendra Banks continues: “In contrast to month-on-month job ad volumes, the number of candidate applications per job ad has increased by 2.6% - the second month running we have seen a rise. Despite the increase applications are still subdued, in comparison to the same month two years ago, current applications per job ad are 33% lower. Job security remains the number one priority for workers, and there is a reluctance to switch roles in the market.”

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

STATE OF THE STATES: ALL STATES AND TERRITORIES SAW A M/M DECLINE EXCEPT VICTORIA

All states and territories, except Victoria, saw job ad growth decline in July, with NSW and South Australia being impacted the most.  

Kendra Banks continues: “Job volumes in most states and territories fell in July, but with the exception of New South Wales, the country’s job ad volumes are 20.6% higher than two years ago and as much as 67.1% in the states and territories.

“New South Wales saw the biggest reduction in the number of new job ads posted on SEEK.com.au in July, down by 14.2%. Previous lockdowns in Victoria show that job ad volumes can bounce back quickly, and we hope to see a similar response in states facing restrictions at the moment.”

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

Figure 2: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by state (July 2021 vs June 2021)

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY SECTORS: HOSPITALITY & TOURISM IMPACTED THE HARDEST IN JULY

SEEK job ad data tells us that when lockdowns and restrictions are imposed, the same industries continue to be impacted. Hospitality & Tourism, Trades & Services and Retail & Consumer Services job ad volumes fell back in July because they are largely made up of customer facing roles.

Kendra Banks comments: “New South Wales makes the largest contribution to job ad volumes, and its current lockdown is having a direct impact on national figures. The state’s top three industries showing a drop are also the top three industries in decline at a national level”.

The top three industries showing the greatest drop m/m job ad volume nationally and in NSW are:

• Hospitality & Tourism which declined 30.7% nationally and 63.3 % in New South Wales,

• Trades & Services reduced by 6.9% nationally and 24.8% in New South Wales and,

• Retail & Consumer Services fell by 7.8% nationally and 29.6% in New South Wales.

There are still plenty of opportunities for jobseekers across the country, and also in NSW.

The top three industries with the most jobs on SEEK nationally right now are:

• Trades & Services with roles in automotive trades, labourers, electricians, welders & boiler makers, technicians, carpentry & cabinet making, and hair & beauty services.

• Healthcare & Medical with roles in physiotherapy, OT & rehabilitation, aged care nursing, dental, psychology, counselling & social work and general & surgical nursing.

• Information & Communications Technology with roles for developers/ programmers, software engineers, help desk & IT support and programme & project management

Table 2: The top three industries in terms of job ad numbers are as follows:

KEY:

• Information & Communications Technology (ICT)

• Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (MT&L)

• Government & Defence (G&D)

• Community Services & Development (CS&D)

Figure 3: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (July 2021 vs June 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.