Jobs Australia: Sign job market will continue to boom

It’s been two unprecedented months of record-breaking job ad-figures but the increase of one particular industry points to good news for job seekers.

After two unprecedented months of record-breaking job ad figures, May listings from seek.com.au reported a slight decline of 0.6 per cent in new month-on-month figures.

Compared to May 2020, however, job ads were up 164.4 per cent, with May figures also outperforming May 2019 figures by 27.2 per cent.

Looking at these results, the Managing Director of SEEK ANZ, Kendra Banks said this drop was “to be expected after unprecedented growth,” commenting in the employment marketplace’s latest employment report.

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The employment market may have slowed by a minuscule amount but there continues to be a strong supply of new listings. Picture: iStock.

SEEK Australia’s May job ad figures revealed another positive sign that employment listings would continue to grow. Human resources and recruitment was the top industry contributing to month-on-month job ad growth, with a jump of 2.4 per cent. This was followed by the mining, resources and energy sector (1.9 per cent month-on-month growth) and technology (0.6 per cent month-on-month growth).

“When recruiters are recruiting you know that the market is busy,” said Ms Banks.

“In May, new job ads in the human resources and recruitment industry increased by 2.4 per cent, which is a hopeful sign of more projects being put back into the pipeline.”

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The growth of jobs in the recruitment sector suggests that employers are prioritising hiring new talent. Picture: iStock.

Despite the steady stream of job listings, applications per job ad have continued to decline, falling 8.7 per cent. Figures continued to be at the lowest level since 2012 and this was reflected in all states and territories and 25 out of the 28 industries listed on the employment platform.

Ms Banks said there were “several factors” behind the decline, with seek.com.au candidate activity reporting that applicants have continued “to monitor job opportunities in very high numbers”.

“We can see that with more jobs available, there is a knock-on effect to the number of applications per job ad posted, with candidates having more choice and being more selective,” she said.

“In addition, the reduced labour supply is impacting the ability to fill roles, which includes the decrease in workers from overseas.

“There is also a hesitancy for candidates to commit to applying for new roles after such a turbulent 12 months or so, with jobseekers valuing job security in light of COVID-19.”

As reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in May, Australia’s unemployment figure is currently at 5.5 per cent. April figures showed a sixth consecutive fall in the unemployment rate, with the youth employment rate also at its lowest level since the global financial crisis of 2007-08.

This post was created in sponsorship with SEEK