Across Australia, there were 344,000 job vacancies in November 2024, up by 14,000 (4.2%) from August on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This is the first increase since May 2022 when job vacancies reached their historical peak, the Bureau noted.

Private sector vacancies stood at 308,000, an increase of 4.7% from August 2024, while public sector vacancies were 36,000, an increase of 0.4% from August 2024.

Queensland saw the biggest increase when compared to the prior quarter at 13.8% while Victoria reported the steepest fall at 2.2%.

When compared to the same period a year ago, job vacancies were down 10.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis. The biggest fall was recorded in Western Australia (-16.1%) while Northern Territory saw an increase of 8.6%.

Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said in a press release, “The number of job vacancies in November was still 39,000, or 10.3% lower than November 2023, and 130,000, or 27.4%, lower than the peak in May 2022.

“However, while there has been a downward trend in job vacancies over the past two and a half years, the number of vacancies is still 51.3% higher, or around 117,000 more, than before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jarvis added.

“As the most recent labour account data shows, job vacancies still make up around 2.1% of jobs in Australia, compared with 1.6% just before the pandemic,” Jarvis continued.