ABS: job vacancies fall for Nov 2022

ABS

Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted estimates for November 2022:

• Total job vacancies were 444,200, a decrease of 4.9% from August 2022.
• Private sector vacancies were 396,800, a decrease of 6.0% from August 2022.
• Public sector vacancies were 47,400, an increase of 6.0% from August 2022.

There were 444,000 job vacancies in November 2022, down 5 per cent (-23,000) from August, according to new seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said “the number of job vacancies fell by 5 per cent over the three months to November 2022, and were down by 8 per cent from the peak in May.”

“Despite falling recently, the number of job vacancies in November was 12 per cent higher than November 2021 (398,000) and almost double what they were in February 2020 (228,000), prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The percentage of businesses reporting at least one vacancy again increased.

“While the number of vacancies has begun to fall over the past six months, we are continuing to see a greater share of businesses reporting at least one vacancy. It was 28 per cent of businesses in November 2022, a slight increase from August 2022 (27 per cent) and more than double what it was in February 2020 (11 per cent),” Mr Jarvis said.

“These figures continue to show the high demand for workers across many businesses and all industries, in a tight labour market.”

The decline in job vacancies was driven by the private sector, which generally accounts for around nine in every 10 vacancies. Private sector vacancies fell by 6 per cent from August to November 2022 while public sector vacancies increased by 6 per cent.

When compared with the pre-pandemic levels, both private and public sector vacancies were close to double what they were in February 2020 (up by 96 per cent and 89 per cent respectively).

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