471,000 jobs vacant: Here’s where to find them

There are now more unemployed people than job vacancies, new data reveals.

There were 471,000 job vacancies in August, the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows. In comparison, there were 488,000 unemployed people in August 2022.

“The large growth in vacancies through the pandemic has coincided with a decline in the number of unemployed people,” Lauren Ford, head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, said.

“As a result, there were a similar number of unemployed people (488,000) to job vacancies (471,000) in August 2022, compared with three times as many unemployed people to vacancies before the start of the pandemic.”

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Job vacancies have doubled since the start of the pandemic, with vacancies now 41 per cent higher than August last year (334,000), when the labour market was impacted by Covid lockdowns.

So which industries are feeling the pinch?

Which industries have the most job vacancies?

The sectors with the biggest number of job vacancies over the last quarter to August 2022 were:

1. Healthcare and social assistance (74,300)

2. Accommodation and food services (59,100)

3. Retail trade (46,100)

4. Professional scientific and technical services (44,100)

Looking at the biggest vacancies since the start of the pandemic in February 2020, the industries hardest hit were:

1. Accommodation and food services

2. Arts and recreation services

3. Rental, hiring and real estate services

4. Health care and social assistance

5. Retail trade

“Despite the overall quarterly decrease, the number of job vacancies continued to increase in some industries, such as retail trade (up 15 per cent) and accommodation and food services (up 14 per cent). This reflected ongoing labour shortages in a tight labour market, particularly in customer facing industries,” Ms Ford said.

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