LMIP data portal

Latest release - April 2020

In trend terms, the Internet Vacancy Index (IVI) fell by 16.4% (or 18,400 job advertisements) in April 2020, the largest monthly decline since the series began in January 2006. This represents a continuation of the sharp economic downturn stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the year this fall was more pronounced, with job advertisements down by 46.1% (80,600). The IVI now stands at an all-time series low of 94,300.

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Vacancy Report data files

Next month's Vacancy Report will be released on Wednesday 24 June 2020.

Headline results

Series impact from the COVID-19 pandemic

The downturn in recruitment activity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated in April 2020. Over the month, new job advertisements fell by an unprecedented 16.4% (18,400) in trend terms or 42.2% (48,900) in seasonally adjusted terms. This represents record monthly decline in both the series, surpassing the previous record declines of 8.2% (17,600) and 10.0% (21,700) observed respectively during the Global Financial Crisis.

For consistency with previous releases, the Vacancy Report will continue to focus on the trend series. Trend analysis provides more stable series for comparisons over time, however, it is initially resistant to large movements. If the large decline seen in the seasonally adjusted series in April 2020 persists in coming months, it is likely that there will be a large revision to the trend estimates in future releases of the Vacancy Report.

Recent opportunities in the labour market

A data visualisation is available on the department’s  Labour Market Information Portal - Tableau Public Channel showing the 10 detailed occupations with the most job advertisements for each state/territory, on the job boards monitored by the department.

Explore regional IVI data by occupation

The Regional Australia Institute have developed an interactive map allowing users to explore occupational IVI data by region.

Background

The IVI is the only publicly available source of detailed data on online vacancies, including for around 350 occupations (at all skill levels), as well as for all states/territories and 37 regions. The IVI is based on a count of online job advertisements newly lodged on SEEK, CareerOne and Australian JobSearch during the month. As such, the IVI does not reflect the total number of job advertisements in the labour market as it does not include jobs advertised through other online job boards, employer websites, word of mouth, in newspapers, and advertisements in shop windows. The IVI also does not take account of multiple positions being advertised in a single job advertisement.