The number of job vacancies in Australia stood at approximately 444,000 in November 2022, up 11.6% from November 2021, according to seasonally adjusted numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

On a quarterly basis, vacancies recorded a decline of 4.9% or about 23,000 from August 2022.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at ABS said, “While the number of vacancies has begun to fall over the past six months, we are continuing to see a greater share of businesses reporting at least one vacancy. It was 28% of businesses in November 2022, a slight increase from August 2022 (27%) and more than double what is was in February 2020 (11%).”

For the private sector, job vacancies increased by 9.2% over the year but fell 6.0% over the quarter. In the public sector, job vacancies jumped 36.6% over the year and up 6.0% over the quarter.

The quarterly decline in job vacancies quarter was driven by health care and social assistance. Job vacancies were 94.9% higher than they were in February 2020, prior to the start of the pandemic. The ongoing high level of vacancies reflected the continuing labour shortages in some industries, the ABS added.

The industries with the highest job vacancies in November 2022 are in healthcare and social assistance followed by accommodation and food services.

Replacement or resignations topped the list of reasons for vacancies at 77% while increased workload was at 44%.

Across the states and territories, the largest quarterly percentage decline in job vacancies was in New South Wales (down 12%) and Victoria (down 7%) The largest percentage quarterly growth was in Tasmania (up 13%).

While job vacancies fell in 13 of the 18 industries, they remained high across all industries when compared with February 2020.

“High numbers of job vacancies in all industries continue to reflect ongoing labour shortages in a tight labour market, particularly in customer-facing industries,” Jarvis said.