The number of Australian job ads fell by 3.7% in October when compared to September as the number of ads continues to show moderation, according to data released Tuesday by Seek.

“The market continues to show some slight moderation, with job ad declines in our largest states of New South Wales and Victoria driving incremental national decline over the past two months,” said Kendra Banks, managing director, Seek ANZ. “The decline in these two states is due to a drop in job ads across most industries, likely caused by the adverse weather and flooding in October, among other factors.”

Overall, three Australian states recording month-over-month declines in job ads including Victoria, down 7.6%; New South Wales, down 2.7%; and South Australia, down 0.9%.

Jobs ads rose in all other states with the largest increase being 2.1% in the Australian Capital Territory. Queensland came next with an increase of 2.0%.

Banks also noted that Seek saw record levels of job ad volume in Australia for seven out of the eight months from October 2021 to May 2022, so year-over-year comparisons will be difficult for the next few months. October 2022 job numbers were down 0.9% on a year-over-year basis; however, they were up 44.7% from pre-Covid numbers in October 2019.

In terms of industry, Seek reported job ads in the consumer services sector drove October’s month-over-month decline with “hospitality and tourism” falling the fastest, down 12.5%, followed by “retail and consumer,” down 9.9%. Trades and services saw a decrease of 5.4%.

“The drop in customer-facing job ads over the past few months, particularly in hospitality and tourism and retail and consumer products, has contributed to the incremental decline in total job ads,” Banks said. “This would be unusual in a traditional year, as we would expect retail and tourism to be gearing up ahead of summer. However, job ads for these industries were unusually high in the middle of 2022, so the declines in volumes might reflect adequate hiring earlier in the year.”