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The industries with the most job vacancies in Australia have been revealed in new Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
There were 390,000 job vacancies in August 2023, a drop of 38,000 from May.
But while job vacancies declined, the unemployment rate increased.
ABS head of labour statistics Kate Lamb said the labour market was even tighter than before COVID-19.
“Demand for workers eased again in August for the fifth straight quarter,” she said.
“While these indicators are no longer at historical levels, both are still showing that the labour market is tighter than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However, Lamb said vacancies are still around 72 per cent higher than they were in February 2020.
“That’s still around 160,000 more jobs that employers are looking for people to fill, as part of a pool of almost 400,000 vacancies,” she said.
“The percentage of businesses reporting at least one vacancy also fell from 25 per cent in May to 22 per cent in August.
“However, this was still double what it was in February 2020 at 11 per cent.”
The Australian Capital Territory had the largest percentage drop in job vacancies at 8 per cent.
Queensland was the only state with a growth in vacancies, with a 4 per cent rise.
How the industries stack up
The industry with the most job vacancies in August 2023 was arts and recreation services.
Vacancies were up 265.6 per cent in August 2023 compared with February 2020.
The industry with the second-most job vacancies in August 2023 was the accommodation and food services job market.
This market had an 181 per cent change from before COVID-19.
The full results are below:
