Growth in job vacancies eases further in February

The number of job vacancies in Australia increased by 1.1 per cent over the February 2019 quarter, according to new trend figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Bruce Hockman, Chief Economist at the ABS, said that job vacancies continued to grow but at a slower rate than in 2018.

“Growth in the quarterly trend measure of job vacancies eased further to 1.1 per cent, which was well below the 5.2 per cent seen a year ago,” Mr Hockman said.

“This was consistent with the recent slowing in other economic indicators.”

Over the year, job vacancies increased by 9.2 per cent, with private sector vacancies increasing by 9.2 per cent and public sector vacancies by 9.4 per cent.

The seasonally adjusted number of job vacancies increased by 1.4 per cent over the February 2019 quarter.

In original series terms, New South Wales contributed the most to the growth in vacancies over the year, with health care and social assistance, and construction the two leading industries.

Job Vacancies Up, But Rotating

The ABS released their data to February 2015 today. Total job vacancies in February 2015 were 151,600, an increase of 1.1% from November 2014. The number of job vacancies in the private sector was 138,400 in February 2015, an increase of 1.0% from November 2014. The number of job vacancies in the public sector was 13,200 in February 2015, an increase of 2.4% from November 2014. The rolling 12 month average was up 1.5%.

However, of more significant note are the state by state changes. We have calculated the rolling 12 month average, based on the state original data (no seasonal or trend adjustments). We see that whilst the percentage of vacancies rose in VIC (8.6%), TAS (7.1%), NSW (2.8%) and SA (2.7%), they fell in QLD (down 2.1%), WA (down 2.8%) and NT (down 9.3%). Looking back over previous quarters, we see a rotation towards the eastern states, and away from WA and NT. Another data point highlighting the transition underway from the mining states.

JobVacFeb2015