The number of job ads on job board Seek in Australia increased 30.9% year-on-year in August 2022, but declined 0.6% month-on-month.

On a yearly basis, job ads rose 54.8% in New South Wales, followed by Victoria (29.1%) and Queensland (28.4%).

Over the month, Victoria (3.7%) and Northern Territory (0.7%) were the only state and territory to record growth in job ads in August. South Australia recorded the biggest monthly drop (-5.0%) followed by Western Australia (-3.0%) and the Australian Capital Territory (-3.0%).

Over the month, Design & Architecture positions recorded the greatest growth. ICT roles saw the greatest monthly decline, falling 5.0% with job ad levels now very nearly on par with 2019 levels.

Applications per job ad rose for the second consecutive month, increasing 3.5% from the month prior, the largest monthly increase recorded this year.

Almost all industries have experienced a decline in job ads over the past quarter, aside from roles in Banking & Finance, ICT and Legal, job ads remain higher than pre-pandemic levels for every single classification on site, Seek added.

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, Seek ANZ, said, “There has been a flattening of the curve for both job ads and applications per job ad over the past quarter.  As job ads ease away from record-high levels, candidate applications are spread less thinly across the great variety in the market, leading to incremental increases in applications per job ad.”

“Job ads in all states and territories are tracking ahead compared to August 2019, and should unemployment remain at record-level lows as forecast, we can expect this to be the case for some time,” Banks added.