ABS show vacancies rose by 2.9% in the quarter to May this year
The total number of job vacancies have risen by 2.9% in May 2025, according to official statistics.
Compared to May last year, the number of vacancies across Australia was down by 9,600 – the smallest annual fall in job vacancies in the last two years.
“The rise in job vacancies was driven by industries with a high proportion of skilled workers, including Professional, scientific and technical services, and Construction,” The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said.
Public sector jobs saw a small quarterly growth, of 2%, with private sector showing even smaller growth at 0.4% in the quarter to May.
The ABS found transport, postal and warehouse jobs saw the greatest yearly change, at almost a quarter (23.3%) – and electricity, gas, water and waste jobs seeing a near-25% drop.
Job vacancies across states and territories over the quarter to May 2025 rose, with the largest rise in the Australian Capital Territory (+11.6%) and Western Australia seeing the largest drop (-6.3%).
‘Over the year, the number of unemployed people for each job vacancy grew from 1.7 to 1.8. This is well below the pre-pandemic level of 3.1 in February 2020, indicating there is still high labour demand,” ABS Head of labour statistics, Sean Crick, said.
