New SEEK data shows job ads down 5.8% annually, but applications per ad just hit a record high.
Australian job ads keep shrinking, but the pay on offer for the roles that remain keeps climbing. New data from SEEK shows a labour market moving in two directions at once, driven by a sharp reallocation of hiring activity toward trades, construction and resources, and away from professional, public sector and retail roles.
SEEK’s Advertised Salary Index found advertised salaries rose 4.2% year-on-year in June, a rate that has been trending upward since July 2025. Month-on-month growth came in at 0.3%, faster than the previous two months but slower than the 0.4% recorded in March.
Dr Blair Chapman, SEEK’s Chief Economist, said the growth is notable given the pressures businesses are under. “Annual advertised salary growth remains relatively strong, despite the challenging environment for businesses, and while growth picked up slightly in June, the monthly pace has softened since March,” he said.
He cautioned the pace may not hold. “Businesses are dealing with higher input and borrowing costs alongside continued global uncertainty, which is impacting the hiring outlook for pockets of the labour market. Annual advertised salary growth is back around the pace last seen in July 2024, although recent monthly growth suggests that we may see a moderation in annual growth over the next few months.”
Job ads keep sliding
Job ad volumes tell a different story. Ads fell 0.9% month-on-month in June, extending an eleven-month streak of gradual decline, and are down 5.8% annually, the steepest yearly contraction SEEK has recorded since early 2025.
Yet competition for the roles that remain is intensifying. Applications per job ad rose 2.0% month-on-month and are now at their highest level on record, meaning fewer ads are drawing more candidates each.
Chapman framed the decline as uneven rather than broad-based. “Job ads continued their incremental decline in June, due to subdued hiring activity in the Professional and Public sectors,” he said. “Meanwhile a growing number of trades-based and technical roles recorded increased demand. This reinforces the story of a labour market in transition.”
WA and SA buck the trend
Western Australia and South Australia were the only states or territories to post job ad growth in June, up 0.5% and 0.2% respectively, both extending runs of growth beyond six months. WA was the only state to record annual growth, up 1.5%, led by construction (up 13.5% annually), manufacturing, transport and logistics (up 7.4%) and engineering (up 16.4%).
“What’s particularly striking is the durability of South Australia and Western Australia against the national trend, with a broad range of industries growing across both states,” Chapman said.
Elsewhere, the picture was weaker. New South Wales fell 1.3% month-on-month and Victoria 0.7%, both driven by falling demand in retail, healthcare and admin roles. Tasmania, the only state to grow in May, reversed to a 1.4% monthly fall and is down 9.6% annually. The Northern Territory and ACT recorded the steepest annual declines, down 12.8% and 13.1% respectively, both heavily exposed to public sector hiring.
Where the growth is
The industry split was just as sharp. Government and Defence job ads fell 16.8% annually, Call Centre and Customer Service dropped 14.6%, and Retail and Consumer Products declined 12.9%. By contrast, Mining, Resources and Energy alongside Farming, Animals and Conservation rose 4.5% annually, while Construction and Trades and Services roles grew 2.3%. In June alone, Trades and Services was the only large industry to post monthly growth, up 0.5%, with smaller gains in Hospitality and Tourism and Consulting and Strategy.
AI-related job ad demand rose 3.2% month-on-month and 64.1% year-on-year, though that annual pace has slowed from 70.8% in May, and AI skills still appear in only around 2% of total job ads. The fastest-growing AI skill categories were Agentic AI and AI ethics and governance, both climbing steeply over the past year, though SEEK’s own report lists differing annual growth figures for Agentic AI in different sections (174.4% in the text, 172.4% on the accompanying chart), a discrepancy in SEEK’s data rather than a reporting error introduced here.
Chapman said the practical opportunity for jobseekers, and by extension employers competing for talent, remains concentrated outside the AI headlines for now. “For jobseekers, the data reinforces that current opportunities are increasingly concentrated in skilled trades, labour and technical roles,” he said. “While demand for AI skills is growing, in particular with reference to Generative AI and ethics, this demand is currently only evident in a small proportion of jobs.”
Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
