Hiring across industries shows steady growth, but demand for professionals down

Job seekers in most sectors still have more ads to sift through than in pre-pandemic times, though workers in fields like tech, consulting and banking now have fewer open roles to go for.

Ad numbers posted to employment marketplace Seek remain above pre-pandemic levels but have been moderating, falling 4.3% in November.

Most sectors are still running above-average job volumes, though Seek managing director Kendra Banks said professional services ads were now lower than in 2019 due to falling demand for workers in tech, consulting, and banking and financial services.

“All other sectors remain higher than pre-pandemic averages, some significantly so,” Banks said.

She said job ads across all sectors were still 13% higher than in November 2019, suggesting still strong demand for workers.

The labour market has so far shaken off a bout of high inflation and a series of interest rate hikes through forward-looking indicators, such as job ads and vacancies, signal weakness.

More details into the state of the jobs market will be on show when the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases official labour force data on Thursday.

The tight labour market has also been leading to wage growth, with separate data from Seek revealing a further improvement in advertised salaries.

Salaries for new hires increased 0.4% in the month of November, to be up 4.6% over the year.

This article was first published by AAP.