Job vacancies increased over the three month to May, driven by a more than a 20 percent jump in the need for construction workers.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows job vacancies rose by 2.9 percent to 339,400 in May.
ABS Head of Labour Statistics Sean Crick said the rise in the three months to May followed a fall in the three months to February.
“The rise in job vacancies was driven by industries with a high proportion of skilled workers, including Professional, scientific and technical services, and Construction,” Mr Crick said.
He said compared with May 2024, the number of job vacancies in May 2025 was down by 9600, or 2.8 percent.
“This was the smallest annual fall in job vacancies in the last two years.”
Mr Crick said over the year, the number of unemployed people for each job vacancy grew from 1.7 to 1.8.
“This is well below the pre-pandemic level of 3.1 in February 2020, indicating there is still high labour demand.”
He said the number of job vacancies rose in eight of the 18 industries in the three months to May, with the largest percentage rises in Construction (+20.6 percent) and Professional, scientific and technical services (+12.6 percent).
“The largest falls were in Wholesale trade (-13.3 percent) and Electricity, gas, water and waste services (-12.6 percent).”
