The National Skills Commission’s latest quarterly Labour Market Update shows that recent labour market conditions have been strong, with growth in both labour demand and supply. Over the 3 months to June 2022, record highs were reached for total employment, the participation rate and the employment-to-population ratio. The unemployment rate fell to its lowest rate since 1974.

Data from the NSC gives us further insights on the state of the labour market.

The Internet Vacancy Index (IVI) shows that job advertisements reached their highest levels since 2008 in June 2022. Job advertisements were up by 80.3% (or 135,200 job advertisements) compared to pre-COVID levels.

Recent results from the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS) reinforce this strength of labour demand, with the proportion of employers recruiting (currently or in the past month) sitting at 58% in June 2022, an increase of 2 percentage points since March 2022. Recruitment difficulty has increased further over the most recent quarter.

The Survey of Employers who have Recently Advertised (SERA) indicates a tightening labour market. Over the year to May 2022, employers filled a smaller proportion of advertised vacancies (58%) compared to the year to May 2021 (60%). The vacancy fill rate declined for 51 out of 63 six-digit ANZSCO occupations surveyed in both 2020-21 and 2021-22.

SERA results also indicate that employers are attracting smaller numbers of applicants. In the year to May 2022, employers attracted fewer applicants (11.5 per vacancy, compared with 12.7 over the year to May 2021) and considered fewer applicants to be suitable (2.0 applicants per vacancy, compared with 2.8 over the year to May 2021).

Recent OECD data points toward similarly tight labour markets in many other countries, highlighting increasing global challenges for employers in finding workers with the required skills.

For more information on the above, read the full quarterly Labour Market Update here.