We regularly update this report to track the pandemic’s effects on the labour market. 

Australian job postings continued to surge upward, following the recent decision to reopen Sydney and Melbourne. Postings began to rise in anticipation of reopening and are showing no signs of slowing. 

On October 22, job postings were tracking 71.2% ahead of their level on February 1 last year, our pre-pandemic baseline, after adjusting for seasonal trends. That was both a new record high and the strongest fortnightly increase in postings in twelve-months. 

Line graph titled “Australian job postings on Indeed.”
Line graph titled “Australian job postings on Indeed.” With a vertical axis ranging from -90% to 90%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021. On October 22, all job postings and new job postings (≤ 1 week) were 71.2% and 85.8% above February 1 last year, the pre-pandemic baseline.

Growth continues to be driven by the sharp rise in new job postings—that is postings that have been on the Indeed website for one week or less. New job postings are an incredible 85.8% above their level on February 1 last year, having increased from 48.4% at the end of September. 

While lockdowns have obviously been detrimental to Australia’s economy, the fact that job creation remained relatively strong and has rebounded so quickly is cause for optimism in what has otherwise been a harrowing situation. It points towards strong employment growth in both New South Wales and Victoria, and to a lesser extent the rest of Australia. Further tightening of the labour market is also likely.

New South Wales and Victoria drive growth

The pick-up in job postings over the past fortnight was again driven by New South Wales and Victoria. Between them, the two states accounted for around 90% of the increase in overall job postings. 

Postings in New South Wales are now 75.3% above their level on February 1 last year, up from a low of 39.5% in early September. Meanwhile, postings in Victoria are now 76.6% above their pre-pandemic level.

Growth elsewhere has been more gradual, with the other states making steady improvement week after week. Postings outside of Australia’s two largest states are now 64.7% above their pre-pandemic level, led by Western Australia (+80.1%). 

Line graph titled “Australian job postings on Indeed by state.”
Line graph titled “Australian job postings on Indeed by state.” With a vertical axis ranging from -90% to 90%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021. On October 8, job postings in New South Wales, Victoria and the rest of Australia were 75.3%, 76.6% and 64.7% above February 1 last year, the pre-pandemic baseline.

Lockdown lingers for some occupations

While the impact of recent lockdowns has diminished, postings remain below their mid-year level for a small number of occupations. These include childcare (-12.6%), cleaning & sanitation (-10.9%), logistics support (-7.5%) and food preparation (-7.5%).

These roles, as well as some others, have been sensitive to economic lockdown. They typically struggled during lockdown last year and have done so again over the past few months. 

Encouragingly, postings improved over the past fortnight for many lockdown-sensitive occupations, including education, beauty & wellness, hospitality & tourism and sports. Gains were also reasonably strong for food preparation and childcare roles, albeit not strong enough for postings to completely regain lost ground. 

There are also a range of occupations that have sailed through recent restrictions. Postings for industrial engineering roles (+46.1%), veterinary (+44.5%), education (+38.2%) and agriculture (+36.4%) have grown strongly since June 30. 

Table titled “Impact of Australia’s latest lockdowns”.
Table titled “Impact of Australia’s latest lockdowns”. Indeed compared the percent change in AU job postings, between June 30, 2021, and October 22, 2021 across various occupational categories. Recent lockdowns have led to a sharp decline in some occupational groups, led by childcare, cleaning & sanitation, logistics support and food preparation. 

Recent improvement in job postings point towards a further tightening of Australian labour market conditions. Recent job creation has been dominated by New South Wales and Victoria, suggesting that labour market conditions and economic activity will close the gap on the rest of Australia. 

Nevertheless, postings in some restriction-sensitive occupations, such as childcare and food preparation, remain below their peaks earlier this year. Many businesses are still operating at reduced capacity and that could limit their ability to expand payrolls and hire more staff in the near-term. 

Methodology

All figures in this blog post are derived from seasonally-adjusted job postings. We seasonally adjust each series based on historical patterns in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Each series, including the national trend, occupational sectors and sub-national geographics is seasonally adjusted separately. We adopted this new methodology in January 2021.

The national and regional analysis is based on the percentage change in job postings since February 1, 2020, our pre-pandemic baseline. Recently, we have compared occupational job postings against their level on June 30, 2021, to capture the impact of recent COVID-19 lockdowns. 

The number of job postings on Indeed.com, whether related to paid or unpaid job solicitations, is not indicative of potential revenue or earnings of Indeed, which comprises a significant percentage of the HR Technology segment of its parent company, Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Job posting numbers are provided for information purposes only and should not be viewed as an indicator of performance of Indeed or Recruit. Please refer to the Recruit Holdings investor relations website and regulatory filings in Japan for more detailed information on revenue generation by Recruit’s HR Technology segment.