New report reveals job ad volumes declined for third straight month
Australia has logged its third consecutive monthly decline in job ads volume, but experts are cautious in attributing the decrease to the rise of artificial intelligence tools.
SEEK's latest Employment Report saw a 0.5% month-on-month slip in job ads for February and a 2.6% year-on-year drop.
Blair Chapman, chief economist at SEEK, said ad volumes have been trending down slowly since mid-last year.
"The downward trend is driven by broad caution in the labour market, and this may persist for some time as global uncertainty rises," Chapman said in a statement.
The biggest monthly declines in job ads were recorded in the Advertising, Arts, and Media (-3.9%), as well as in Consulting and Strategy (-3.3%) industries.
Information and Communication Technology job ads also dropped 2.8%, while HR and recruitment roles also declined by 1.1%.
Is the trend because of AI?
The drop in job ads comes amid major concerns that AI will eliminate some roles as it takes over some tasks in the workplace.
But Chapman noted that their findings suggest otherwise.
"While it may be tempting to attribute this decline to the rise of AI, our findings suggest automation is not yet having a negative impact on job ad volumes," the chief economist said.
SEEK's AI Gauge noted that occupations with relatively medium and high exposure to AI and automation have been declining. However, the rate of decline has slowed significantly over the past six months and is now near stagnant.
"The trend decline in key industries such as Consulting & Strategy and Information & Communication Technology predates the dispersion of LLMs in the workplace, suggesting that it is not the result of automation," Chapman said.
Moreover, the report noted that job ads referencing AI-related skills have soared 83% since early 2024 and are now almost three times their 2019 level.
"Together, these findings suggest that AI and automation is not yet having a negative impact on job ad volumes and that the demand for AI skills is growing quickly and broadly," Chapman stressed.
