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The financial and insurance services sector is the only industry to have fewer vacancies now than before the pandemic, according to ABS data.
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed that the financial and insurance services sector experienced the most significant decline in job vacancies over the August quarter, contracting by 15 per cent during the three-month period ending in August.
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According to the ABS methodology, financial and insurance services encompass financial investment advisers and managers, financial brokers, bank workers, accountants, and, as of recently, financial advisers.
In August 2023, 7.5 per cent of financial and insurance services sector businesses reported a job vacancy, with approximately 11,300 jobs available. This is the lowest vacancy figure for the financial and insurance services sector since May 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic.
It is now the only industry to have vacancies lower than they were pre-pandemic, the ABS said, down 5.2 per cent on February 2020 levels.
While the number of job vacancies has fallen, some areas of the sector – such as broking – continue to see participant numbers rise, with many brokerages currently recruiting for support staff.
Job vacancies fall across the board
There were 390,000 job vacancies in Australia across all sectors in August 2023, down 38,000 from May.
Kate Lamb, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “The number of job vacancies fell by around 9 per cent between May and August, and has dropped by 18 per cent from the peak in May 2022.
“Demand for workers eased again in August for the fifth straight quarter. This coincided with an increase in the unemployment rate over the three months to August.
“While these indicators are no longer at historical levels, both are still showing that the labour market is tighter than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Job vacancies were still around 72 per cent higher than they were in February 2020. That’s still around 160,000 more jobs that employers are looking for people to fill, as part of a pool of almost 400,000 vacancies.
“The percentage of businesses reporting at least one vacancy also fell from 25 per cent in May to 22 per cent in August. However, this was still double what it was in February 2020 at 11 per cent.”
[Related: Broker numbers exceed 19,000]
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