The number of job vacancies in Australia fell to 353,000 in May, a decrease of 10,000 from February, according to new figures from ABS.
“The number of job vacancies fell further in May 2024, dropping by 2.7%. This followed a fall of 6.2% in February 2024,” said Bjorn Jarvis (pictured above), ABS head of labour statistics.
May marked two years since the peak in job vacancies in May 2022. Since then, vacancies have fallen by 26%.
“However, job vacancies were still well above their pre-COVID-19 pandemic level, with around 54.8%, or around 125,000, more vacancies than in February 2020,” Jarvis said.
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The decline in job vacancies was seen across many industries. The strongest quarterly percentage falls were in wholesale trade (-30.7%) and manufacturing (-29.8%).
Only four industries saw growth in job vacancies over the quarter. The strongest percentage rises were in professional, scientific and technical services (15.9%) and public administration and safety (15.3%).
“Job vacancies remained higher than their pre-pandemic levels in 15 out of 18 industries,” Jarvis said. “This continued to be particularly pronounced in customer-facing industries, including accommodation and food services, and arts and recreation services, where vacancies are still more than double pre-pandemic levels.”
The latest Labour Account data showed much of the recent growth in filled jobs was in the three non-market sector industries – health care and social assistance, education and training, and public administration and safety.
“This was also reflected in the latest job vacancies data, with these three industries’ share of total vacancies growing from around 27% in May 2023 to 28% in May 2024,” Jarvis said in a media release.
“Health care and social assistance now accounts for the largest share of total vacancies – around 18% or close to one in five vacancies.”
Job vacancies dropped over the three months to May in both the private (-2.7%) and public sectors (-2.5%). There were also falls in job vacancies in most states and territories. South Australia saw the largest percentage drop (-17.3%) followed by Western Australia (-12.3%). The only rise was in the Northern Territory (15.2%).
For more details, read "Job Vacancies, Australia, May 2024".
For related news, read about Aussie wages hitting record high and the slight decrease in the unemployment rate.
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