The Queensland labour market tightened in August, as the rest of the country saw a continued fall in job vacancies.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) statistics showed there were 330,000 job vacancies in August, down by 18,000 from May.
ABS Head of Labour Statistics David Taylor said the gradual decline in job vacancies nationally continued, with the quarterly fall in August the ninth in a row and vacancies were now well below the peak of 473,000 in May, 2022.
“However, while the number of job vacancies has fallen over the past two years, they remain 45.1 percent higher, or 102,000 more, than before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mr Taylor said.
He said job vacancies in August fell in most states and territories, expect Queensland which saw an increase of 0.9 percent.
“South Australia saw the largest percentage fall (-9.0 percent), followed by the Northern Territory (-6.4 percent).”
Mr Taylor said the number of job vacancies in August fell in 11 of the 18 industries, with the largest quarterly percentage falls in accommodation and food services (-17.2 percent) and manufacturing (-9.9 percent).
He said the strongest quarterly percentage rises in job vacancies were in transport, postal and warehousing (14.9 percent) and arts and recreation services (7.1 percent).
“However, despite the August 2024 quarterly growth, job vacancies in both industries were still lower than a year ago.”
Mr Taylor said annual drops in job vacancies were seen in all industries except rental, hiring and real estate services.
“Job vacancies were still higher than their pre-pandemic levels in all but four of the 18 industries – Administrative and support services, Financial and insurance services, Wholesale trade, and Information media and telecommunications.
“Vacancies were still more than double pre-pandemic levels in some industries, most notably in Arts and recreation services, and Accommodation and food services.”
