Job advertisements in Australia fell slightly by 0.3% in January 2022 following a downwardly revised 5.8% drop in December. Despite the surge in Omicron cases, job ads remained 9.6% above the Delta-lockdown lows, according to job ad data from ANZ Bank.

ANZ Senior Economist, Catherine Birch said, “Although ANZ Job Ads fell by 0.3% in January, they rose steeply on a weekly basis through the month, as is usual following the seasonal Christmas/New Year low. This was despite the large number of Omicron cases in the community, reflecting the resilience in labour demand and the widespread view that Omicron would only be a temporary setback.”

Job ads were up 34.5% when compared to pre-Covid levels in January 2020.

The total number of job ads in January 2022 stood at 208,522.

“After Omicron, we expect the job-switching rate to rise as workers change to better, higher paying jobs in 2022. This would mean more people quitting their current jobs, which should translate into a greater number of new job ads, raising ANZ Job Ads as well as the National Skills Commission measure. So we may not have seen the peak yet.”

ANZ’s data is based on information provided by the operators of the following sites: Seek.com.au and the Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s Australian job search site (Jobsearch.gov.au).