After two consecutive months of record-breaking job ad numbers, December saw a surprise drop in Australia, with 3.2 per cent fewer ads than in November.
However, when compared to December 2020, job postings increased by 39 per cent year on year and 45.9 per cent when compared to December 2019.
According to the most recent SEEK Employment Report, the December slowdown was backed by a drop in volume in Retail (8.2 per cent) and Information & Communication Technology (6.8 per cent).
“December and January are typically slow-moving months in the job market, although clearly, these are atypical times, says Stephen Tuffley, Sales and Service Director at SEEK.
“Job ads have been on the rise since August, though they fell nationally by 3.2 per cent in December compared to the previous month. However, job ads were still 39 per cent higher than December 2020, and all states experienced significant year-on-year growth.
“As businesses and employees return from the holidays, we expect to see movement in both ads and applications.
“Looking at the first ten days of 2022, there have been more jobs posted to the site than in the same period in the past three years,” Stephen says.
In contrast, applications per job increased by 1.9 per cent in December compared to November, the first monthly increase since February 2021, indicating a more employable workforce as the year came to a close.
When compared to November 2021, the Northern Territory (4.7%), Victoria (7.2%), Australian capital territory (4.8%), and New South Wales (4.3%) all saw a decline in job ads on seek.com.au. Only Western Australia (1.1 per cent) saw a marginal increase in job ads from November 2021.
According to Kendra Banks, Managing Director of SEEK ANZ, 2022 appears to be promising.
“We expect demand for candidates to remain high as businesses attempt to secure themselves some long sought-after new talent in 2022.”
“While ‘The Great Resignation’ is yet to be seen in Australia, candidate sentiment research undertaken by SEEK does point to almost one-third of Australians looking to change jobs within the next six months so that we will be anticipating movement there in 2022.”
Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
