Covid-19 lockdowns are impacting employment demand with job ad volume in Australia falling by 5.3% in August when compared to July, according to the Employment Report released Thursday by job board operator Seek.

“Covid-19 restrictions continued to have a major impact on the labour market in August 2021,” said Kendra Banks, managing director, Seek ANZ. “Perhaps unsurprisingly, states and territories under the strictest lockdowns each saw a decline in job ad volumes. New South Wales and Victoria saw the most significant drops in volume down 10.7% and 6.3% month-on-month, respectively.”

Still, job ads for Australia as a whole were up 55.9% year over year from August 2020 and up 15.2% from August 2019.

Seek’s report on job ads follows another report on job ads in Australia released earlier this week by ANZ bank. It found job ads fell 2.5% in August

In the Seek report, Banks noted that job ads in Victoria had increased during July despite a two-week Covid lockdown but the extension of the lockdown throughout the whole month of August brought job ad numbers down.

In Queensland, job ads fell 5.0% month over month in August and the Australian Capital Territory saw job ads fall 11.9%. However, job ads rose 2.4% in South Australia and 0.3% in Western Australia. Tasmania and the Northern Territory saw increases of 2.8% and 2.7%, respectively.

“In August we have again seen the stark impact of Covid-19 restrictions,” Banks said. “South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory had increases in job ad volumes. Conversely, levels in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT have declined following various increases in local restrictions and lockdowns.”

She also noted that all Australian states and territories had more job ads in August than in the same month in 2019 with the exceptions of New South Wales and the ACT, which are down by 11.7% and 6.5%, respectively.

The industry with the biggest decline in job ads during August was “hospitality and tourism,” which saw a 19.0% decrease. “Sports and recreation” followed with a 12.5% decrease. The industry with the biggest month-over-month increase in job ads was “consulting and strategy” with a 4.7% increase. It was followed by “mining, resources and energy” with a 4.1% increase.