Job ads rose in December but overall were down for the year

The number of job ads for the year were down by a quarter in some states as businesses pulled back their hiring, particularly in the tech and retail sectors.

Employers should have an easier time finding workers if the number of applicants for job ads is any indication, and more Australians are expected to be out of work this year.

Data from online employment company Seek shows that nationally, job ads were down 17.4 per cent in the 12 months to December due to a slowdown in the economy.

Ads for tech workers were down by 32 per cent, followed by retail and hospitality sectors (down 27 per cent), which have been impacted by a pullback in consumer spending.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics this week releases the latest labour force figures for December, and economist expect the unemployment rate to remain steady at 3.9 per cent and 18,000 jobs to be added – compared with 61,500 jobs created in November.

Seek said Victoria experienced the sharpest decline in the number of job ads in the past year with volumes down 25 per cent, followed by 23.3 per cent in NSW and 16.2 per cent in the ACT. The Northern Territory was the only jurisdiction to have had an increase – at 1.8 per cent.

The falling rate at which employers sought to hire staff helped drive a 6 per cent increase in applications per job ads in the month to December, which came as national job ads rose 0.5 per cent in the month.

“For only the third time in 18 months, job ad volumes rose in December,” Seek managing director Kendra Banks said.

“The rise was supported by an increase in demand for trades and services workers, specifically labourers, welders and boilermakers, and gardening and landscaping roles.”

Tasmania was the best location for job ads growth in the past month; the state was up 5.6 per cent, followed the NT at 1.6 per cent and Queensland on 0.7 per cent.

Education had the smallest decline in job ad volume in the past year at 5.9 per cent, but volumes fell 3.5 per cent in the month to December as institutions wound down for the academic year.

Separately, the “Keeping us up at Night” survey of 319 senior executives by KPMG released earlier this month showed that fewer senior executives were concerned about finding talent, with 42 per cent citing it as an issue for the year ahead, compared with 77 per cent in 2023 and 69 per cent in 2022.

“With the added migration and also domestic workers also starting to look around a little bit more, businesses are now having a deeper pool of people to employ,” KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said.

Rynne said that the unemployment rate would be around 4.5 per cent by June and close to 5 per cent by the end of the year.

A unemployment rate at nearly 5 per cent would be highest reading since 2022 and would come in much higher the RBA’s expectation of 4.25 per cent predicted in its Statement of Monetary Policy in November.