SEEK Advertised Salary Index, October 2025
The SEEK Advertised Salary Index (ASI) measures the growth in advertised salaries for jobs posted on SEEK in Australia. This quarterly SEEK ASI report contains industry and state trends. There will be briefer monthly reports in December and January.
NATIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS
Advertised salary growth rose by 0.4% m/m in October. Monthly advertised salary growth troughed in June and has been inching up since.
Annual advertised salary growth has accelerated slightly over recent months to 3.6%, returning to the pace set in May.
STATE ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS
Advertised salary growth in the Northern Territory has sat around 5.0% y/y since June, outpacing the rest of the country.
Despite faster advertised salary growth in recent months, Victoria continues to have the slowest annual growth in advertised salaries at 3.4% y/y.
INDUSTRY ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS
Advertised salaries for Banking & Financial Services can be volatile, but fast movement over the past three months has seen annual advertised salary growth accelerate to 6.3% y/y, the fastest across all industries.
Advertised salaries have barely grown over the past 12 months for Science & Technology roles (0.1% y/y). This likely reflects the continued decline in demand, with job ads for these roles on a downward trend since 2022.
NATIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS
Advertised salaries rose by 0.4% m/m in October and 1.0% q/q, the fastest quarterly growth since August last year.
Figure 1: Month-on-month growth of SEEK Advertised Salary Index
Note: seasonally adjusted. Source: SEEK.
Faster advertised salary growth in recent months has seen a slight reacceleration of annual growth to 3.6% y/y, from its trough of 3.4% in July. Prior to the recent slowdown, annual advertised salary growth had sat between 3.6% and 3.7% /y between October 2024 and May 2025.
Figure 2: Year-on-year growth of SEEK Advertised Salary Index
Note: seasonally adjusted. Source: SEEK.
STATE ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS
Advertised salary growth in the Northern Territory has sat around 5.0% y/y since June, well above advertised salary growth across the rest of the country over the year. Monthly advertised salary growth has slowed over recent months, which has seen the annual pace tick down slightly from 5.1% y/y in June to 4.9% in October.
Tasmania had the fastest advertised salary growth over the three months to October (1.6%). The increase in advertised salaries likely reflects more labour demand in Tasmania following a relatively weak period at the end of 2024 and start of 2025. Tasmania has also seen an increase in labour force participation since earlier this year, which may prevent advertised salaries growing too much further.
Annual advertised salary growth in South Australia has been relatively stable over the past six months, ranging from 3.9% to 4.1% y/y. In the 12 months to September, however, the state recorded the fastest employment growth and robust labour demand, which is not reflected in its moderate advertised salary growth.
Annual advertised salary growth remains relatively subdued in Victoria (3.4% y/y) compared to Australia’s overall growth, despite job ads trending up slightly since earlier this year. A relatively high unemployment rate in Victoria, which suggests there is some spare capacity in the labour market, is likely to prevent advertised salary growth accelerating too much in the state.
Table 1: SEEK Advertised Salary Index growth by state/territory
Figure 3: Year-on-year growth of SEEK Advertised Salary Index by state/territory
Note: seasonally adjusted. Source: SEEK.
INDUSTRY ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS
The Banking & Financial Services industry had the fastest advertised salary growth in October at 6.3% y/y, following relatively fast advertised salary growth over the past three months. There has been an acceleration in the industry since July when annual growth slowed to 3.9% y/y.
Advertised salary growth for Consulting & Strategy remains faster than most industries over the year to October (5.2%). Some modest declines in advertised salaries have occurred between some months this year in the industry, but they are much smaller than in 2024.
Advertised salary growth in the Legal industry continues to slow. Now at 4.8% y/y this has slowed by 3 ppt since January. Despite the slowdown it remains among the industries with the fastest annual advertised salary growth.
The Science & Technology industry has experienced relatively weak advertised salary growth over the past 12 months (0.1% y/y), alongside a decline in demand over the past year. Other industries have experienced larger declines in demand but have not experienced the same stagnation in advertised salary growth.
Table 2: SEEK Advertised Salary Index growth by industry
NOTES
When reporting SEEK data, we request that you attribute SEEK as the source and refer to SEEK as an employment marketplace.
Commentary relating to the SEEK ASI can be attributed to Dr Blair Chapman, SEEK Senior Economist.
About the SEEK ASI
The SEEK ASI measures the change in advertised salaries over time for jobs posted on SEEK in Australia, removing much of the effect of compositional change.
The SEEK ASI is a complement to existing data about the growth in wages and salaries in Australia, including the ABS’ WPI. The WPI is a measure of the pace of wages growth across the economy.
The SEEK ASI provides a timely and frequent read on the pulse of advertised salary growth in Australia for vacant roles.
Disclaimer
The Data should be viewed and regarded as standalone information and should not be aggregated with any other information whether such information has been previously provided by SEEK Limited, ("SEEK"). The Data is given in summary form and whilst care has been taken in its preparation, SEEK makes no representations whatsoever about its completeness or accuracy. SEEK expressly bears no responsibility or liability for any reliance placed by you on the Data, or from the use of the Data by you. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately.