The IT industry has led the Australian jobs market with the largest proportion of new job ads and now represents the largest employment advertising classification.
The Information, Communications and Technology industry was responsible for 10.7 per cent of total Seek new job advertisements in 2014.
The sector continues to strengthen in 2015, with new job ads up 14 per cent year on year to January 2015 figures.
Despite news reports last week which revealed unemployment was at a record high, Seek found more jobs advertised now than 12 months ago.
Managing Director of IT recruitment firm M&T Resources, Chris Sandham, said digital transformation and the rise of analytics and intelligence are all areas that have so far driven the biggest demands they’ve ever seen for IT talent.
“We foresee continued overall growth, as most of our clients are at the beginning stages of their transformation and integration programs," he said.
"Organisations are positioning themselves for Cloud-based moves, while some are attempting to further develop their product offerings which will rely on technology initiatives in analytics and information management, CRM, and digital."
The other major industries across Australia, including Trades and Services (accounting for 7.7 per cent of SEEK’s new job ads last year), experienced a 12 per cent year on year growth to January 2015.
Healthcare and Medical (7.4 per cent of new job ads last year) also surged ahead with 13 per cent year on year growth.
New jobs advertised in January surged 4.1 per cent nationally from December 2014. This was 10.9 per cent higher than January 2014.
"Through 2014 we saw promising signs in the labour market and it’s good to see that the labour market is looking in better shape than 12 months ago," said Seek managing director of employment and learning, Joe Powell.
“Job advertising data is often a little more volatile around the December/January holiday period, so we must be cautious interpreting trends due to the heavy seasonal swings in advertising. Still, the year on year increase is very encouraging.”
Looking month on month to January 2015, sizeable gains were recorded in the states with the larger share of the national market.
New South Wales and Victoria each increased new job ads by 5.2 per cent month on month, which largely drove the national surge.
A smaller increase of one per cent was recorded in Queensland, although this was the state’s third increase in the past four months.
New South Wales remains the labour market showing the most encouraging trend in the country with new job advertising more than 18 per cent higher than a year ago.
In Victoria, new job advertising is more than 11 per cent higher and up 3.6 per cent in South Australia.
The Queensland labour market continues to record only moderate growth, up 5.4 per cent year on year. This likely reflects its diverse economic characteristics, with a weaker mining industry offsetting some improving signs in the non-mining economy.
Weakness persists in Western Australia, down 1.5 per cent year on year to January 2015 – now the only state with advertising at levels below that seen a year ago.
“The January data shows encouraging signs for the national labour market, with quite varying performances among the states, likely reflecting each state’s particular economic circumstances,” Powell said.
“Hopefully, lower petrol prices, the lower Australian dollar, and lower interest rates, will support further improvements in the labour market in the months ahead and offset any uncertainty as a result of the current political situation.”
The SEEK Employment Index increased 3.1 per cent in January 2015 indicating a strong volume of applications for every job ad which is currently posted.
The Index increased in New South Wales 3.9 per cent, Victoria 2.4 per cent, Queensland 2.2 per cent, South Australia 5.1 per cent and Western Australia 1.7 per cent.
