Job advertisements in Australia decline by 11.4% year-on-year in October 2023 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to ANZ-Indeed job ads data published on ANZ Bank.

The 11.4% decrease is a further deterioration from the 8.2% annual fall reported in September.

Seasonally adjusted, the number of job ads fell by 3.0% over the month. In trend terms, job ads fell by 1.2% over the month in October.

ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads also fell by 11.2% from the September 2022 peak but remains 44.9% higher than pre-Covid-19 levels.

Indeed’s Senior Economist, Callam Pickering said, “The imbalance between labour demand and supply is gradually easing. Job ads are down 11.4% over the past year, while Australia’s population aged 15+ increased 2.8% over the year to September. Recent weakness in job ads has been concentrated in New South Wales and Victoria, with a more modest subtraction from Queensland. Driving this year’s decline in job ads is fewer opportunities in food preparation & service, software development and personal care, which offset more opportunities in healthcare and education.”

ANZ Economist, Madeline Dunk added, “Slack is slowly creeping into the labour market. Hours worked have been falling, recent jobs growth has been driven by part-time employment, youth unemployment has been rising and the underemployment rate has been moving up. This, along with the modest unwinding in job ads numbers, suggests the unemployment rate will rise further.”

The Australian Bureau of Statistics most recent labour market data showed September’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 3.6%, flat when compared to the same period last year.