As Australian job vacancies double, which sectors are facing the biggest labour shortages?
Job vacancies in the Australian labour market have not just recovered from the Covid pandemic, they’ve doubled.
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics release, there are 480,100 job vacancies in Australia, a 111.1% increase since February 2020.
In June unemployment tumbled to 3.5% as Australia approaches what is considered full employment, meaning almost everyone willing and able to work is in a job.
But which sectors are experiencing the biggest workforce shortages, and what is the cause?
The sectors with the biggest absolute number of job vacancies are healthcare and social assistance (68,900), accommodation and food services (51,900), and professional scientific and technical services (42,900).
In terms of the growth in vacancies since Covid, arts and recreation leads the way at 250% of pre-pandemic levels, followed by accommodation and food services, then real estate. Construction rates highly by both measures, with 39,900 vacancies, 140% of pre-pandemic levels.
Calculating the vacancy rate as vacancies expressed as a proportion of total jobs, Jim Stanford, the director of the Centre for Future Work, said the sectors most strapped for workers are: administration and support (8.9%), hospitality (5.7%), wholesale trade (5.2%) and real estate (4.3%).
Prof Jeff Borland, a labour market economist at the University of Melbourne, said demand for labour was “very strong”, driving an increased vacancy rate “across all occupations and industries”.
“We’re creating new jobs at such a rate, it’s taking time to hire and for the labour supply to catch up,” he said.
David Rumbens, a partner at Deloitte Access Economics, said a lot of stimulus had been pumped into the economy, including interest rates at near-zero, which had
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