Accounting job ads rebound in January to rise almost 8%

Seek managing director Australia and NZ Kendra Banks said hiring had stabilised in January despite uncertainty over the broader economy.

“Advertising volumes have reverted to November levels after falling marginally in December,” she said.

“While 2.8 per cent seems a small increase in volume after seven months of decline, job ad levels remain above pre-pandemic levels for the majority of industries. For our largest hiring industries by volume, for example, job ads remain over 55 per cent higher.”

The manufacturing, transport and logistics sector led the overall rise, growing 5.3 per cent, followed by trades and services, up 2.5 per cent.

The increase for the accounting profession was matched by consulting and strategy ads, which rose a similar amount, while jobs in design and architecture jumped 11 per cent to head the pack.

Queensland drove the national growth in job ads, up by 4.2 per cent, followed by NSW, up 2.7 per cent. In percentage terms, Tasmania rebound most with 8.5 per cent more ads than December.

The Seek data also showed applications per job ad up 9.2 per cent from December.

“More Australians have been taking the opportunity to investigate their career options, with both visitation to seek.com.au and applications per job ad jumping month-on-month,” Ms Banks said.

“This rise in applications per job ad is partly a result of the drop in job ads in December, but is also caused by increased candidate activity, as more Australians begin to make career moves.”

For hospitality and tourism jobs applications per ad rose 20 per cent while for bar stuff responses leaped 35 per cent.

Seek said most industries were now seeing higher job ad volumes than four years ago, before the pandemic.