MEDIA RELEASE
EMBARGOED- midnight 3rd December
Job ads rise again in November with NSW the star of the show
New online job ads rose for the fourth consecutive month, increasing by 0.5per cent in November to be 10.7per cent higher than in November 2013 according to the latest data released today by SEEK, Australia’s leading online employment marketplace.
SEEK has the largest single source of unique new job ads in Australia and the New Job Ad Index acts as a lead indicator into the health of the employment market on a month to month basis.
“Once again, divergent results across the states were evident, with rises on the eastern seaboard restrained by a sharp fall in Western Australia job ad volume,” says SEEK Managing Director of Employment & Learning, Joe Powell.
Looking at the Australian market broadly, increases in new job ads have been evident over the past three months. New South Wales continues to be the driving force behind the Australian labour markets three months of consecutive new job ad growth. Gains were again recorded with New South Wales new job adsup 2.4per centmonth on month to November 2014.
“Advertising in New South Wales has increased for six months in a row with heightened strength in the past four months. The state’s new job ads are now 18.6 per cent higher than a year earlier. New South Wales is clearly the best performing labour market in the country at the current time.” says Mr Powell.
The performance of the New South Wales labour market is reflective of the shift in growth drivers in the Australian economy. According to recent economic outlooks low interest rates, a solid pipeline of infrastructure projects and a rising population are all expected to contribute to New South Wales growth in the next twelve months.
Victoria also showed improvement in labour demand with new job ads up 1.4 per cent month on month to November 2014. With strong commitment from the newly appointed Labour Government in Victoria to stimulate the local economy and drive job creation we will watch closely to see if this translate into uplift in new job ads.
Together New South Wales and Victoria account for around 56% of employment, so confidence in these two states with regards to employment opportunities is encouraging.
Queensland notched up 0.6 per cent and the Australian Capital Territory up 7.8 per cent month on month to November.
The rises were sufficient to offset the large fall in Western Australia advertising, together with declines in Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
“The improvement in the non-mining economy and states relatively less exposed to mining has outweighed the drag from the weakness in mining investment. Given the recent further sharp falls in some commodity prices, including iron ore and more recently oil prices, it will be important to continue to monitor trends in SEEK job advertisements as one of the first indicators to reveal the balance of the divergent forces currently impacting on the Australian economy,” says Mr Powell
Data points to a continuation of demand for roles within design & architecture, trades & services and consulting and strategywith these classifications having the biggest year on year rebound in demand for labour.
SEEK New Job Ad Index
Across Australia the monthly series of SEEK New Job Ads increased 0.5 per cent from October to November to 2014. At a state level;
- New South Wales; up 2.4 per cent
- Victoria, up 1.4 per cent
- Queensland, up 0.6 per cent
- South Australia, down 1.7 per cent
- Western Australia, down 7.4 per cent
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Sarah Macartney
Public Relations Manager, Seek Limited
E:
P: 03 8306 0818 or 0433 949 639
About SEEK
SEEK is a diverse group of companies, comprised of a strong portfolio of online employment, educational, commercial and volunteer businesses. SEEK is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, where it is a top 50 company with a market capitalization close to A$6 billion.
With exposure to 2.5 billion people and over 20 per cent of global GDP, SEEK makes a positive contribution to people’s lives on a global scale.
SEEK Australia currently receives over 26.6 million visits per month. The SEEK experience is seamless across desktop, mobile and iPad and currently over 54 per cent of all visits to seek.com.au are via mobile devices.
In Australia, SEEK also has the SEEK Learning business which connects people with education and training to advance their career and SEEK Commercial, where people can find businesses and franchises for sale.
Source: SEEK Omniture Data October 2014
About SEEK Intelligence
Details can be found online at
About the SEEK Employment Index
Developed in consultation with Victoria University's Centre of Strategic Economic Studies, the SEEK Employment Index (SEI) is the first Australian aggregate indicator to measure the interaction between labour market supply and labour market demand.