SEEK Employment Dashboard, April 2025
This report includes SEEK’s seasonally adjusted data as well as trend data for the first time. Where not otherwise specified, the commentary, figures and tables in this report refer to the seasonally adjusted data. See notes 2 and 3 at end for more information about the difference between the two data sets.
*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to March data.
National insights
After two months of decline, job ad volumes rebounded in April, rising 1.8% m/m.
The annual rate of decline has slowed to its lowest point since December 2022.
State and Territory insights
Queensland experienced the strongest m/m growth, up 7.6%.
Ad volumes in South Australia are now 5.6% higher y/y.
Industry insights
Hospitality & Tourism led job ad growth with a 9.8% rise m/m, likely bolstered by seasonal hiring patterns.
Healthcare & Medical grew 3.8% m/m, reversing its significant drop from the previous month.
SEEK Senior Economist, Dr Blair Chapman says:
“Job ad volumes rebounded in April, up 1.8%, and the annual rate of decline has slowed to a two-year low.
“Looking through the recent month-on-monthnoise we continue to see job ads stabilise in line with our expectations. This is reflected in the trend data, albeit with extreme weather conditions and global uncertainty adding volatility of late.
"In recent years we have seen strong growth in applications per ad for government roles, perhaps reflecting the increased desire by candidates to work from home, alongside the perceived work-life balance and job security that a government role offers.”
National trends
Job ad volumes rose for the second time this year, up 1.8% m/m after two months of decline. This was driven by growth in six of the eight states and territories in April.
Results around March and April are usually a little variable as they are influenced by the timing of Easter and ANZAC Day.
Annually, the rate of decline has slowed to 5.7%, the slowest it has been since December 2022.
Applications per job ad rose for a second consecutive month, up 2.6%, and are 16.2% higher y/y.
Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m (April 2024 to April 2025)
State and Territory trends
Queensland was the top contributor to the national rise in volume m/m, with a 7.6% increase in job ads in April.
After a sharp drop in ad volumes recorded in March, due largely to the severe impact of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, this marks a significant recovery for the state. This was particularly evident in Hospitality & Tourism where ad volumes jumped 25.7% m/m and in Trades & Services, up 9.6%.
Western Australia and South Australia follow with positive growth rates of 2.3% and 2.2% respectively.
In contrast, the Northern Territory has experienced the most significant decline with job ads dropping by 2.9% m/m, while New South Wales has seen a slight decrease of 0.1%.
Figure 2: State and territory job ad decline comparing i) April 2025 to March 2025 (m/m) and ii) April 2025 to April 2024 (y/y).
Looking at the annual change, South Australia stands out as the only state showing positive y/y growth at 5.9%. The Australian Capital Territory (-14.7%) recorded the steepest decline in ad volume y/y, followed by Victoria (-11.3%).
South Australia was also the only state or territory where applications per job ad declined, m/m, falling 5%.
Figure 3: Major state job ad change over time: April 2021 to April 2025. Index = 100 (2013 average)
Industry trends
Across all industries, the strongest m/m growth was in Sport & Recreation (15.5%), Real Estate & Property (11.8%), and Hospitality & Tourism (9.8%), with these industries making substantial positive contributions to overall job ad volumes.
The national rise in ad volumes in Hospitality & Tourism was bolstered by increases in every state and territory, with significant growth in South Australia (26.4%) and Queensland (25.7%). As a result, it was the greatest contributor to overall growth in April.
This was followed by Healthcare & Medical, which declined 4.5% in March, but bounced back 3.8% in April, Administration & Office Support (7.1%), and Retail & Consumer Products (8.0%).
Table 1: Hospitality & Tourism job ad growth (m/m) by state/ territory.
*Indicates Hospitality & Tourism was the top contributor to growth for the state.
Industries declining the most m/m include Insurance & Superannuation (-3.8%), Mining, Resources & Energy (-2.8%), and Call Centre & Customer Service (-1.2%), although ad volumes in these industries have been volatile recently.
Sport & Recreation (9.7%) and Hospitality & Tourism (9.2%) grew strongly y/y, with ad volumes remaining above pre-COVID levels. Design & Architecture has also performed relatively well with a 4.4% y/y increase, bucking the broader trend of decline across most industries.
Figure 4: National SEEK job ad percentage change by industry (April 2025 vs March 2025) – Ordered by job ad volume.
About the SEEK Employment Report
The SEEK Employment Report is Australia’s leading employment index and provides a comprehensive overview of the Australian Employment Marketplace. The report includes the SEEK Employment Index (SEI) which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.
Notes:
(1) The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including: a) seasonal adjustments applied to the SEI; b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI; and c) the exclusion of Company Listings (included under Company Profiles) from the SEI.
(2) Seasonally Adjusted figures remove regular calendar-related patterns from the data (e.g. Christmas holiday period). The seasonal adjustment is applied by a statistical model widely used by official statisticians (e.g. Australian Bureau of Statistics). This helps show month-on-month changes without seasonal distortions.
(3) Trend figures go a step further by applying a weighted moving average to the seasonal adjusted figures (using a 13-term Henderson moving average) to smooth out short-term fluctuations and noise. The trend numbers help identify the longer-term direction by filtering out both seasonal effects and short-term volatility.
(4) Caution is recommended when interpreting trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks.
(5) The applications per ad index contains a series break at Jan 2016 when the calculation of this series changed from using gross variables (inclusive of all SEEK job listings) to net variables (removing duplicate job listings). This change has a negligible impact on recent data points, but caution is recommended when interpreting data immediately following the series break, and particularly in 2016 where growth rates have not been adjusted for the series break.
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.