'Marginal rise': Australian job ads up by 0.5% in September

Queensland, New South Wales offset job ads decline in Victoria: report

'Marginal rise': Australian job ads up by 0.5% in September

Job ads in Australia went up 0.5% to increase for the third consecutive month this year, according to the latest data from SEEK.

"There was a marginal rise in job ads this month," said SEEK Senior Economist Blair Chapman in a statement.

"While there are early signs that ad volumes are stabilising, given the ongoing uncertainty in the market, it is still too early to be calling this a trend."

Source: SEEK September

Australian job ads breakdown

By territory, the Northern Territory logged the biggest job ad growth with 5.4%, followed by the Australian Capital Territory with 3.8%.

By state, only Queensland and New South Wales registered a month-on-month increase in job ads with 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.

"Queensland and New South Wales both experienced a third consecutive month of growth," Chapman said. "This was offset by a decline in Victoria, which fell 1.3%, largely due to declining local demand in Information & Technology and Hospitality & Tourism."

Source: SEEK

By industry, the Farming, Animals, and Conservation sector registered the biggest monthly job ad growth with 12.7%. This was followed by the Insurance & Superannuation (7.5%) and the Retail & Consumer Products industries (7.2%).

The human resources and recruitment industry also saw a marginal increase of 0.3% in September, according to the SEEK report.

On the other hand, the biggest monthly drop in job ads was reported in the Call Centre & Customer Service (-6.3%) sector. This was followed by the Marketing & Communications (-4%) sector.

Source: SEEK

Applications per job ad

Meanwhile, applications per job ad increased slightly by 0.7% in August, according to SEEK, with the change driven by the rise in applications recorded in Western Australia (5.2%) and Victoria (2.5%).

These hikes were enough to drive total demand among workers up nationally, despite smaller declines in other states and territories:

  • South Australia (-4.2%) 
  • Queensland (-2.2%) 
  • Australian Capital Territory (-2.4%) 
  • Tasmania (-1.1%) 
  • New South [Wales] (-1.0%) 
  • Northern Territory (-1.0%)