Is the job market turning around?

According to new data, the job market could be seeing a turnaround. Is this the end of talent shortages?

According to SEEK’s latest employment report for March 2023, job ad volumes decreased 0.6 per cent from February, while job applications rose 4 per cent in the same period.

However, these changes are minimal, and according to SEEK ANZ managing director Kendra Banks, while the job market is stabilising, it’s far from coming back to pre-pandemic levels.

“It has been three years since COVID began to impact the Australian labour market, and the flow-on effects are still being felt, with unemployment extremely low and job ad volumes remaining elevated compared to 2019 levels,” said Ms Banks.

“Job ads are falling, but only marginally each month, as the market continues to stabilise post the job ad boom of last year. There is also understandably some trepidation among hirers as to the economic outlook, particularly in our largest capital cities, contributing to the slight slowdown in hiring.”

Ms Banks continued: “Candidate activity is picking up across all of our metrics, and applications per job ad are at the highest level they have been in almost two years, though still below pre-pandemic levels. Most industries recorded greater applications per job ad in March, particularly for secondary and vocational teaching roles.”

The silver lining is that job ads are far lower than last year, proving that a turnaround is being noticed. March 2023 had 15.7 per cent fewer advertisements than March 2022.

While ads are on the decline, they are still 25.1 per cent higher than they were in March 2019, highlighting how far we are from normality.

Similarly, applications are rising, and according to SEEK, quicker than job ads are falling. This shows “increased activity among candidates.” Applications are 48.5 per cent higher than in March 2022; however, again, they’re still below pre-pandemic levels.

Regional and metropolitan areas saw varying data. While job advertisements fell by 0.9 per cent in metro areas, rural suburbs saw an increase of 0.3 per cent.

NSW and Victoria drove the decline in job ads, dropping by 1 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively. SEEK said this is due to less demand for workers in capital cities like Sydney and Melbourne.

However, Tasmania and ACT saw decent increases of 3.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively.

As far as specific roles go, education and training rose for the third consecutive month, climbing 2.4 per cent from February. According to SEEK, this was due to increased demand for teachers.

The three industries listed with the biggest declines were hospitality and tourism, advertising, arts and media, and farming, animals and conservation, at 5.5 per cent, 6.5 per cent, and 9.7 per cent, respectively.

SEEK noted that hospitality and tourism advertisements have been steadily dropping since June 2022, apart from a slight increase around holiday times.

A key trend noticed by SEEK was a surge of applications in the information and communication technology field, rising 11 per cent from February. This is reportedly a consequence of the recent tech industry redundancies that occurred.