The number of vacant jobs in Australia grew by a small margin of 0.1% year-on-year from 2.7% in December 2021 to 2.8% in December 2022, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

On a quarterly basis, the proportion of vacant jobs, however, fell by 0.4%.

“A fall in the proportion of vacant jobs in the December quarter points to a slight easing in labour market pressures, from the peak in the September quarter,” said Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics.

Jarvis noted that the proportion of vacant jobs still remained well above the pre-pandemic level of 1.6%.

Job vacancies fell by 11.2%, according to the bureau, but was still much higher than before the pandemic (94% higher than March 2020).

While labour demand fell, the number of jobs filled went up by 0.8% as well as hour worked by 1.9%. Australia also recorded record highs in workers holding multiple jobs, which has become increasingly popular over the last few years, the bureau said. The rate of multiple job holding increased to 6.6%, the highest it’s ever been since the bureau began collecting data in 1994.

“Almost one in every fifteen employed people now hold more than one job, with some of these people working more than two jobs at the same time,” said Jarvis.