Expert however warns that the labour market 'remains challenging'
Job advertisements in Australia rose for the month of September amid a number of industries demonstrating growth, according to a new report from SEEK.
Its latest Employment Insights report revealed a 0.8% increase in job ads in September, a slightly slower growth rate than the previous 0.9% in August.
Annually, job ads declined by 1.1%, but the report noted that this was the slowest rate of decline in more than two years.
"September's data reveals Australia's demand for workers is broadly stable, with job ads rising 0.8%. The annual job ad decline has slowed to 1.1%, the slowest since November 2022," said SEEK senior economist Blair Chapman.
Labour demand by industry
The retail and consumer products industry showed the strongest demand for workers in September, with job ads rising 2.4%.
Advertised job openings for human resources and recruitment roles also rose 0.7% for the month, according to the SEEK report.
"A number of industries are demonstrating growth, notably within the larger hirers such as trades and services and manufacturing, transport and logistics," Chapman said.
"However, some areas within the professional services sector remain under pressure, with insurance and superannuation down 2.9% and banking and financial services declining for the fifth consecutive month."
'Labour market remains challenging'
Despite the broadly stable demand for workers, Chapman noted that the labour market remains in a challenging position.
Australia's unemployment rate was at 4.3% in November, with the number of full-time employees dropping by 57,000 people.
"As the recent rise in the unemployment rate and the slowdown in employment growth indicates, the labour market remains challenging," Chapman said.
Casual work also continued to decline in 2025, with just 2.4 million employees considering their job as casual as of August 2025, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data.
"There were 12.3 million employees in Australia in August 2025. This means that around one in five employees, or 19%, were working as a casual in their main job," said Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, in a statement.
Crick said the share of casual employees in the country has dropped by around four percentage points over the last nine years.
"In 2016, around 23% of employees were casual, dropping to 20% during the COVID period in 2020," Crick added. "We then saw the share of casual employees grow to 22% in 2022, but it has been dropping since then."
The top driver behind casual work in 2025 is flexible working hours, according to the ABS. Other reasons include operating businesses from home and less time spent on travelling or commuting.
The drop in casual work comes as applications per job ad increased by 0.6% in August, according to SEEK data.
"With applications per job ad also rising 0.6% in August, we're seeing increased candidate engagement alongside growing demand, highlighting that the market remains tough for job seekers," Chapman said.
