The number of job vacancies in Australia decreased by 1.3 per cent over the August 2019 quarter, according to new trend figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Bruce Hockman, Chief Economist at the ABS, said that following a period of growth, the trend level of vacancies had declined for the last three quarters.
"The quarterly trend measure of job vacancies fell 1.3 per cent in August 2019, following a sustained period of growth from 2013 to 2018," Mr Hockman said.
"This fall led to the first annual decline of job vacancies since February 2014, of 1.4 per cent over the year".
In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of job vacancies decreased by 1.9 per cent in the August 2019 quarter, and also decreased by 1.9 per cent over the year.
In original series terms, Tasmania had the largest percentage increase in vacancies over the year, while the largest percentage decrease in vacancies occurred in Victoria.