Figures from the latest SEEK Employment Report have indicated a decline of 6.5 per cent in jobs advertised compared to May 2018. At the same time, the average advertised salary across Australia rose 3.4 per cent year on year.
Job ad growth in industries related to public service continue to perform including education and training (+11.9 per cent) and healthcare and medical (+3.7 per cent). In addition, jobs ads for mining, resources and energy (+5.3 per cent) continue to rise with the industry consistently driving job ad growth since the beginning of the year. Science and technology (+0.3 per cent) sector still experienced a modest growth in job ads, compared to this time last year.
“It has been interesting to see that job ad volumes have moderated in May after a pronounced drop in April,” said Kendra Banks, managing director, SEEK ANZ. “We suspected that April advertising was heavily impacted by multiple public holidays and the lead up to the Federal election, and our data has verified this hypothesis.”
While May job ad volumes are still down from 2018 it is important to note that 2018 was somewhat of an anomaly with the highest job ad volumes in the past decade. Comparing May 2019 to May 2017 for example, shows the month had 3.0 per cent more jobs advertised.
“As Australian businesses work through the outcomes of the Federal election and set their 2020 financial year budgets, it will be interesting to see which industry groups commit to new headcount,” added Banks. “Our data is showing strong growth across education and training and healthcare and medical sectors, and we will watch these sectors closely as we head into what is traditionally the busiest recruitment period of the year.”
Despite the slowdown in job ads, the average advertised salary across Australia in May was up +3.4 per cent on last year. There was a strong growth in salaries across all states, with Tasmania (+5.8 per cent), Western Australia (+4.3 per cent) and Queensland (+3.8 per cent) leading the way.
Banks comments: “There’s been a 3.4 per cent increase in average advertised salary compared to this time last year. We have seen salary increases in the majority of sectors, with the ones with the biggest growth being advertising, arts and media (+6.6 per cent), banking and financial services (+6.4 per cent), community services and development (+6.2 per cent), trades and services (+5.6 per cent), Human Resources and recruitment (+5.1 per cent).”
