The latest SEEK Employment Report has delivered a decline of 8.9 per cent in jobs advertised compared to April 2018. At the same time, however, the average advertised salary across Australia rose 4.1 per cent year on year.
SEEK’s analysis suggests job ad growth in industries related to public service are outperforming other sectors. This includes education and training (+11.9 per cent), healthcare and medical (+3.7 per cent) and government and defence (+2.3 per cent).
“From 2014, we saw consistent growth in job ads which reached a ten-year peak in April 2018,” says Kendra Banks, managing director, SEEK ANZ. “Due to a range of factors, including easing of the macroeconomic conditions, the rate of job ad growth has cooled since April 2018. This combined with the perfect storm of public holidays, with ANZAC Day and Easter seeing many employees taking increased annual leave and the upcoming election, resulted in April 2019 job ad figures being notably down year on year.”
Education and training topped the list in April 2019 for sectors showing the most growth. Within this, roles for tertiary teaching (+33 per cent) saw the greatest growth, followed by secondary teaching (+21.1 per cent), early childhood (+13.7 per cent) and childcare and outside school hours (+10.5 per cent).
Kendra comments, “Education and training and healthcare and medical are less susceptible to economic cycles as these sectors are on a long run structural uptrend. The uptrend is fuelled by population growth, international student demand and greater industry demand for qualifications. This means these sectors are likely to top the leaderboard during periods of softening economic growth.”
