Job advertisements in Australia fell by 5.4% year-on-year in April 2023 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to ANZ-Indeed Job Ads data published on ANZ Bank.

When compared to the previous month, job ads fell 0.3% in April 2023. ANZ Bank noted that the figure is only 0.8% below the recent peak in June. This suggests tightness in the labour market is not yet letting up, which is consistent with other indicators, according to ANZ Bank.

In trend terms, the monthly decline slowed to 1.1%. ANZ-Indeed Job Ads are still 52.5% higher than pre-pandemic and, absent a major shock, seems unlikely to fall back to historical levels any time soon, ANZ Bank stated.

ANZ Senior Economist, Catherine Birch said, "ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads edged down slightly in April to be 7.7% lower than the September 2022 peak. But the level remains very high, signalling significant unfilled labour demand, and is consistent with solid employment gains. Employment surged by almost 117k over February and March, keeping the unemployment rate steady at 3.5%.

Indeed Senior Economist, Callam Pickering, said, “Although ANZ-Indeed Job Ads has fallen to its lowest level since January last year, the volume of jobs created has still been sufficient to absorb a high level of net migration.”

“Labour demand remains robust nationally, with particular strength noted among graduate recruitment,” Pickering said. “Graduate-related job ads were 24% higher during the first quarter, compared with a year earlier.”

Pickering continued, “While job ads have fallen across every state in recent months, they remain higher in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia than a year ago, partially offsetting larger declines in New South Wales and Victoria.”

ANZ Bank’s job ads data is based on information provided by the operators of the following sites: Indeed (au.indeed.com); 2018-ongoing;  Workforce Australia, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (workforceaustralia.gov.au) and previous iterations; 1999-ongoing; Seek (seek.com.au); 1999-2022; and newspaper job ads; 1975-2018.