Seasonally adjusted estimated from February 2025 show 328,000 job vacancies
The total number of job vacancies in Australia has decreased by almost five percent, according to government data.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released seasonally adjusted estimates from February 2025 show there were a total of 328,900 job vacancies, a decrease of 4.5% from November 2024.
Statistics released today (3 April) shows an 8.4% annual decrease in the number of vacancies in both public and private sector jobs combined.
Job vacancies are down 30.7% from May 2022 when the level of job vacancies peaked, according to the report, but still almost 50% higher (44.5%) than they were compared to February 2020, prior to the start of the pandemic.
The state with the greatest number of vacancies is New South Wales (100,800), with Tasmania the lowest (5,300).
Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said, “The drop in the number of job vacancies reversed the recent rise of 17,000 vacancies in the three months to November 2024. As a result, there was a similar number of vacancies to what there had been in August.”
Compared with February 2024, the number of job vacancies in February 2025 was down by 34,000, or 9.3 per cent.
The number of job vacancies fell in 11 of the 18 industries in the three months to February 2025. The biggest percentage falls were in Arts and recreation services (-31.3 per cent) and Professional, scientific and technical services (-17.0 per cent). The largest rises were in Manufacturing (+23.3 per cent) and Rental, hiring and real estate services (+7.3 per cent).
Compared with a year ago, job vacancies fell in 11 industries, with the largest drops in Construction (-33.8 per cent) and Education and training (-26.0 per cent). The strongest percentage growth in job vacancies over the year was in Rental, hiring and real estate services (+13.0 per cent).
Job vacancies in most industries remained higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Accommodation and food services, and Arts and recreation services both remained particularly high compared with their pre-pandemic levels.
