• Australian online job vacancies have now increased for 16 consecutive months, according to Australia’s Department of Jobs and Small Business
• The strongest growth over the year came from Australia’s mining regions
• Vacancies also increase in each of Australia’s eight capital cities

Job vacancies are increasing almost everywhere in Australia.

According to the Australia’s Department of Jobs and Small Business, skilled job vacancies placed online rose in all but two of 37 regions in the 12 months to January.

As seen in the map below, many regions saw increases of over 6% during the year, with a fair chunk of those registering increases of 16% or more.

The government said that skilled vacancies rose in each of Australia’s eight capital with Darwin recording the strongest rise at 20.9%, followed by Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne at 15.5%, 11.3%, and 10.6% respectively.

Outside of the capitals, ads in outback Queensland soared by 59.5%, followed by the Goldfields and Southern Western Australia, Far North Queensland and South West Western Australia with increases of 24.7%, 22.5% and 22.3% reported.

The government said the large scale of the gains reflected a small number of advertisements in each region, meaning a small numeric increase resulted in a large percentage gain.

In absolute terms, total skilled vacancies rose by 1.2% to 183,700 in January in trend terms, leaving them up 10.6% over the year.

Ads have now increased in each of the past 16 months, the longest stretch of consecutive monthly gains since March 2011.

Over the year, ads rose in all of the eight occupational groups monitored with the strongest growth recorded for technicians and trades workers with an increase of 19.7%, followed by machinery operators and drivers and managers with gains of 14.3% and 12.4% apiece.

Vacancies also increased in each state and territory from a year earlier, led by the Northern Territory and Western Australia with growth of 22.9% and 16.6% respectively.

The government’s Internet Vacancy Index is based on a count of online job advertisements newly lodged on SEEK, CareerOne and Australian JobSearch during a particular month.

The government stresses that it “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”.

It also does not specify whether the vacancies are for full-time, part-time or casual staff.

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