Job ads on Australian job board Seek are up 12.4% year-on-year in February 2021.

The 12.4% growth is an improvement over the previous month’s 6.5% year-on-year growth. It is also the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year job ad growth, Seek noted.

Seek job ads were up by 4.1% month-on-month.

By industry, the top three industries contributing to year-on-year growth were Trades & Services (50.1%), Hospitality & Tourism (47.9%) and Healthcare & Medical (20.7%).

On a month-on-month basis, every industry, except Farming, Animals and Conservation saw growth from January 2021 to February 2021.

For the first time since the pandemic began, every state and territory saw year-on-year job ad growth. The Tasmania state saw the biggest growth during February with a 40.3% increase.

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, Seek ANZ said, “It is close to 12 months since Covid-19 severely impacted the employment market, and we are pleased to observe continued improvement with the healthiest year-on-year job ad growth since the pandemic began.”

“However, we were reminded in February that restrictions and lockdowns will still be a factor in 2021, with Western Australia and Victoria both experiencing short lockdowns,” Banks said. “Looking at the weekly job ad numbers, lockdowns have a noticeable impact on job ad postings, however, recruitment activity recovers once restrictions lift. Victoria had positive monthly job ad growth, WA’s month-on-month job ad number was slightly lower in February 2021 than January. This can be most likely be attributed to the short lockdown period.”