27 September 2018

Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)

The number of job vacancies in Australia in August 2018 was 240,900 (trend), an increase of 3.4 per cent over the quarter, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures.

Bruce Hockman, Chief Economist at the ABS, said, "We're still seeing growth in the quarterly trend measure of job vacancies but at a much slower rate. It's down on the recent growth in May and also below last August, when it was 4.6 per cent."

Over the year, job vacancies increased by 19.3 per cent, with private sector vacancies increasing by 20.3 per cent and public sector vacancies by 9.5 per cent.

The seasonally adjusted number of job vacancies increased by 0.6 per cent in the quarter to August 2018.

In original series terms, Victoria was the state or territory that contributed the most to this growth over the year, with administration and support services, and professional, scientific and technical services the leading industries.

"The number of unemployed persons per job vacancy (trend) decreased further in August, implying that job vacancies are increasing at a faster rate than the available spare capacity," Mr Hockman said. "This is consistent with other indicators in the labour market that are suggesting vacancies are becoming harder to fill."

Further details are available in Job Vacancies, Australia, August 2018 (cat. no. 6354.0), available for free download from the ABS website https://www.abs.gov.au.

Media notes:

• Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
• For media requests and interviews, contact ABS Media on 1300 175 070 or at media@abs.gov.au (8.30am-5pm Mon-Fri).
• Subscribe to our media release notification service to be notified of ABS media releases or publications upon their release.