Education a bright spot in slowing jobs market

It’s mid-year and it’s always a quiet time before the madness leading up to Christmas, job market activity is usually slower than usual and most states are recording declines in job ad numbers, that is unless you’re in education.

The five sectors driving the highest job ad growth rate include: Science & Technology; Education & Training; Mining, Resources & Energy; Healthcare & Medical; and Insurance & Superannuation.

The top five industries showing salary growth are: Banking & Financial Services; Advertising, Arts & Media; Retail & Consumer Products; Community Services & Development; and Sport & Recreation

All states and territories are showing a decline in job ad volume except the Australian Capital Territory (+5.3%) and Tasmania (+0.9%). Victoria leads salary growth (+3.2%) followed by New South Wales (+3.0%).

The latest SEEK Employment Report shows a decline of 7.7% in jobs advertised compared to June 2018. The average advertised salary across Australia rose 2.7% year on year.

Science & Technology topped the list as the sector with the highest job ad growth rate with a rise of 19.2% (June, 2018 vs. June, 2019). Within this sector, roles for Quality Assurance & Control saw the greatest growth (+70.6%), followed by Environmental, Earth & Geosciences (+54.1%) and Food Technology & Safety (+28.8%).

Kendra Banks,MD, SEEK ANZ said “As we know, June is the last month of the financial year and tends to be a quieter month for job ad volume. We have seen a continued decline of job ad growth this month extending the trend of 2019. However, the first few months of a new financial year - with businesses setting new priorities and budgets being refreshed - normally form the busiest months for recruitment in the whole year. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few months, where I believe we will get a clearer picture of the current employment market.

“Continuing the trends we have seen across 2019 we are still experiencing growth in the Education & Training (+14.5%), Healthcare & Medical (+9.6%) and Science & Technology (+19.2%) sectors.”

The average advertised salary across Australia in June was up 2.7% compared to last year, and showed a modest growth in salaries across all states and territories, to the exclusion of Tasmania (-0.8%), with Victoria (+3.2%), New South Wales (+3.0%) and the Northern Territory (+2.5%) leading the way.

 “There has been a slight fall in salary growth in the final quarter of FY19. The peak came in April at 4.1% and 3.4% in May. In June we have seen salary increases in a majority of sectors including Banking & Financial Services (+6.2%), Advertising, Arts & Media (+4.7%), Retail & Consumer Products (+4.6%), Community Services & Development (+4.5%) and Sport & Recreation (+4.4%),” she said.