Job vacancies rose for the first time in more than two years in the final quarter of last year.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Head of Labour Statistics Bjorn Jarvis said the number of vacancies in the December quarter of 2024 was up by 2.3 percent.
“The rise in job vacancies in the December quarter was the first rise since the September quarter 2022, after eight quarterly falls in a row,” Mr Jarvis said.
He said job vacancies still accounted for around 2.1 percent of total jobs in the labour market, which was still well above the pre-pandemic level, when it was around 1.6 percent.
“This shows that, despite the growth we have seen in jobs, employment and hours over the past five years, employers are still more likely to be looking for people.”
Mr Jarvis said the number of filled jobs rose by 0.4 percent, to 16 million, in the December quarter.
“Filled jobs rose by 66,000 in December quarter 2024, an increase of 0.4 percent.
“This was slower growth than the relatively strong increase of 272,000 jobs or 1.7 percent in the September quarter.”
He said the growth in the number of employed people also slowed in the December quarter, down to 0.7 percent, following the rise of 1.1 per cent in the September quarter.
“Main and secondary jobs both contributed to the slowing in jobs growth in the December quarter, with main jobs growing by 0.4 percent, and secondary jobs by 1.2 percent.
“This was down from the relatively large rises of 1.6 percent and 4.1 percent in the previous quarter.”
