Slight fall in job vacancies in November

There were 389,000 job vacancies in November 2023, down 3,000 from August, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

David Taylor, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “The number of job vacancies fell by around 1 per cent between August and November.

“This was the sixth straight quarterly drop in job vacancies, which have now fallen by around 18 per cent from the historical peak in May 2022. However, this quarter saw a relatively small decline, compared with the 8 per cent fall in August.

“Job vacancies remain well above their pre-COVID-19 pandemic level, around 71 per cent higher than February 2020.”

The slow fall in the number of job vacancies from its peak also coincided with recent increases in the unemployment rate. However, both continue to suggest that the labour market remains relatively tight. 

“The number of unemployed people per job vacancy was 1.5 in November. While this is higher than 1.1, when it was at its pandemic low, it is still well below the 3.1 figure in February 2020,” Mr Taylor said.

“Similarly, the most recent Labour Account data for the September quarter, showed that job vacancies still accounted for around 2.6 per cent of jobs in the labour market, which was well above the 1.6 per cent from the March quarter 2020.”

The decline in job vacancies was seen in most industries. The strongest quarterly percentage falls were in Rental, hiring and real estate services (-14 per cent) and Education and training (-12 per cent). The only two industries where job vacancies rose were Mining (2 per cent) and Public administration and safety (1 per cent). 

Job vacancies in many industries remained high compared with pre-COVID levels. This continued to be particularly pronounced in customer-facing industries, including Arts and recreation services, and Accommodation and food services.

Job vacancies in both the public and private sectors declined over the three months to November. Public sector vacancies fell by 1,000 (-2 per cent) while the private sector fell by 2,000 (-1 per cent).

There were also falls in job vacancies in all states and territories in the three months to November. The Australian Capital Territory saw the largest percentage drop in job vacancies (-17 per cent) followed by the Northern Territory (-14 per cent).

The ABS would like to thank businesses in Australia for their continued support in responding to our surveys.