Australian Employment Market Update

Released 26.02.19

 

Weekly change in total number of jobs advertised on major job boards

Australian recruitment software provider, Perform Zone, monitors the number of new job adverts placed on Australia’s top 3 job boards.
Overall, we’re seeing a drop off in advertised roles in Early February.
Average hourly earnings of all private sector employees rose by 3 cents over January, following a 10-cent gain in December. Hourly earnings have risen 3.2 percent over the past 12 months.

Accounting and Finance
Business Services and corporate advisory roles are experiencing the highest demand, followed by Financial Accounting & Reporting. M&A executives are on the rise in Queensland. Tax accountants with local experience are consistently in need. Banking and insurance not so much.

Healthcare
Aged care nurses and Physios are experiencing the highest demand with consistent demand throughout Australia.
Health care added 42,000 jobs in January with gains in ambulatory health care (+22,000) and hospitals (+19,000). Job growth in health care had averaged 29,000 per month in 2018.

Trades
NSW, Queensland, Victoria and WA is where the work is. South Australia is still yet to show signs of growth.
CNC programmers, fitters, electricians Aircon technicians and Automotive trades are in high demand. Consistent with the recent trend in manufacturing, employment in durable goods was stronger than in nondurable goods. Durable goods added 20,000 jobs in January, while nondurable goods employment edged down 7,000.

Construction
Construction employment rose by 52,000 in January. Job gains in specialty trade contractors were split between the residential (+15,000) and nonresidential (+19,000) components. Residential builders added 9,000 jobs. Employment in construction grew by an average 27,000 in 2018.Employment in construction has risen by 338,000 over the past 12 months. We are seeing a decline in residential construction.

IT
Sydney is the place to be if you are in the IT industry. We are seeing web developers and testers rising in demand. Skills mostly sought include Automated and Data warehouse testers, QA Project Managers, Front End developers, UX designers, software team leaders, Drupal and Full stack developers.

Government
Government Government employment changed little in January. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires federal agencies to provide back pay to employees who were on furlough during the reference pay period. These employees will receive pay for the reference period; therefore, they were counted as employed in January. Federal government employment changed little in January (+1,000).

Mining
Employment in mining grew by 7,000 in January. Most of the industry’s growth can be attributed to support activities for mining, which added 5,000 jobs. Mining employment has risen by 119,000 since reaching a low in October 2016. Over the past 12 months, mining has added 64,000 jobs.

Leisure and Hospitality
Employment rose by 74,000 in leisure and hospitality in January. Food services and drinking places added 37,000 jobs, followed by amusements, gambling, and recreation with 32,000. Leisure and hospitality had added an average 29,000 jobs per month in 2018.

Retail Trade
Employment in retail trade edged up by 21,000 in January. Sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores added 17,000 jobs,offsetting declines over the prior 2 months. General merchandise stores lost 12,000 jobs in January, following a loss of 28,000 in December. Retail employment has shown little net change over the year.

Last 30 days of adverts posted on major job boards around Australia