SEEK Employment Report - Job ad growth bucks seasonal slowdown trends in November

STATE OF THE NATION: JOB AD GROWTH BUCKS SEASONAL SLOWDOWN TREND

November saw a second consecutive month of record-breaking job ad numbers, with 1.1% more ads than in October, particularly in the Hospitality & Tourism, Trades & Services and Healthcare & Medical industries, according to the latest SEEK Employment Report.

When compared to November 2020, which recorded job ads at pre-pandemic levels for the first time that year, job ads have grown 50% y/y and 51.8% compared to November 2019.

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ, comments:

“Even a nominal 1.1% increase in job ads speaks volumes about the state of the market, with the lead-up to Christmas traditionally a time where businesses scale back on talent hiring. Instead, we had more job ads on our site than ever before.

“While not all states and territories experienced an increase in job ads from October to November, demand across the nation remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.”

Applications per job ad continued to decline this month, down 9.4% on October, demonstrating that while hirers are bucking the usual Christmas slowdown trend, talent may be holding off until the new year.

Kendra Banks continues: “We are also still seeing interest from candidates monitoring the market, indicated by traffic volume to the site remaining steady month to month, however applications per job ad are low and decreasing, which is not unusual for this time of year as people tend to halt their transition aspirations leading into Christmas.

“The new year traditionally brings an uplift in candidates applying for new jobs and with SEEK research showing that 31% of Australians are looking to change jobs in the next six months, we would expect to see an increase in applications in early 2022.”

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

STATE OF THE STATES: FOUR STATES AND THE NORTHERN TERRITORY AT RECORD-BREAKING LEVELS

Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria all experienced the highest job ads on record this month, while Western Australia equalled the state record for job ads it first reached in April 2012.

Northern Territory (4.3%), Victoria (3.6%) and Queensland (3.3%) had the greatest m/m growth in jobs ads on seek.com.au, whereas New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory both saw a decline. New South Wales was down 2.2% compared to October 2021 and the Australian Capital Territory, which recorded its highest number of job ads in June this year, had 1.9% fewer ads m/m on site.

Kendra Banks continues: “A decline in job ads was recorded only in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, however job ads in both areas are still higher than pre-pandemic levels and both have seen their highest number of job ads in 2021.

“Even with slight fluctuations, job ads in each state and territory nationally remain extremely high as we move toward the end of the year.”

Figure 1: State and territory job ad volumes – November 2019 to November 2021

Figure 2: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by state (November 2021 vs October 2021)

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY SECTORS: CUSTOMER-FACING ROLES DRIVE JOB AD GROWTH

As capacity and venue density restrictions were further eased in New South Wales and Victoria, demand for customer-facing roles grew, notably in the Hospitality & Tourism (7.0%), Healthcare and Medical (4.1%) and Trades and Services industries (3.2%).  

Kendra Banks comments: “We saw continued month-on-month job ad growth in three of Australia’s largest hiring markets; Hospitality & Tourism, Healthcare & Medical and Trades & Services industries.

“In fact, jobs in all consumer and public service industries grew in November, with smaller industries like Sport & Recreation welcoming the ease of restrictions and more and more Aussies returning to gyms, sports centres and studios.”

Table 2: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (November 2021 vs November 2020).

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.

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