Job ads on job board Seek Australia were up by 67.9% in July 2021 when compared to July 2020 and up 20.6% when compared to June 2019.

When compared to the previous month, job ads slipped 4.1%. At the same time, applications per job ad grew for the second consecutive month, up by 2.6%, month-on-month.

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, Seek ANZ, said, “Parts of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia all experienced various forms of lockdown or restrictions during July 2021. The restrictions in Greater Sydney, which were in place for the entire month and unfortunately remain ongoing, led to month-on-month job ad volumes declining by 14.2% for the whole state.”

“New South Wales employs the largest cohort of people in Australia, and job ad growth or decline in the state will often be reflected in the national figure,” Banks added. “For example, in the hospitality & tourism industry job ads fell nationally by 30.7% in July, following a drop of 63.3% in New South Wales.”

On a year-on-year basis, job ads saw the biggest growth in the state of Victoria. When compared to July 2019, job ads saw the largest growth in Tasmania.

Seek separately announced today that it had invested in South Korean job board JobKorea.