Labour market growth slows into early 2024

THE Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported a 0.8 per cent increase in filled jobs for the March quarter 2024, bringing the total to 15.7 million.

This represents an addition of 124,000 jobs, consistent with the average quarterly growth seen throughout 2023.

“Filled jobs rose by 124,000 in the March quarter 2024, which was broadly in line with the average quarterly growth seen across 2023,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

“Looking over the year, filled jobs increased by 2.4 per cent or 367,000 jobs.

“This annual growth was around half of what we were seeing at the same time last year, when the labour market was particularly tight.”

Multiple job-holders increased by 12,000 (+1.2 per cent) in the March quarter, maintaining the multiple job-holding rate at 6.7 per cent. This rate has been stable at around 6.6 to 6.7 per cent for the past six quarters, remaining above the pre-pandemic range of 5.2 to 6 per cent.

Job vacancies fell by 4.3 per cent in the March quarter, reducing the proportion of vacant jobs to 2.3 per cent, the lowest since March 2021, but still significantly higher than the 1.6 per cent seen in March 2020.

“Despite a 25 per cent drop from the peak in job vacancies seen in September 2022, there were still over 60 per cent more vacant jobs than we saw before the pandemic. There is still plenty of demand for workers, which is contributing to growth in employment,” Mr Jarvis said.

While labour demand remained strong, it softened over the March quarter, with job vacancies declining in 12 of the 19 industries. Nevertheless, vacancies remained above pre-pandemic levels in 17 industries, with 11 reporting at least 50 per cent more vacancies than in March 2020.

Meanwhile, the latest Regional Movers Index shows that Greater Geelong boasted the fastest jobs growth of all large regional areas in Victoria and the fourth fastest in Australia over the past five years, with a growth rate of 5.1 per cent per annum.

In 2022-23, Greater Geelong created 9,210 new jobs, bringing the total to 144,570, marking the 13th largest increase among 537 local government areas in Australia. The health care and social assistance sector led the job growth with an increase of 3,768 jobs, making it the largest employing industry in the region.

Geelong mayor Trent Sullivan highlighted the significance of these figures.

“While the figures don’t reflect the challenges facing our region and the national economy over the past 12 months, the data does demonstrate how our diverse economy expanded and grew stronger,” he said.

Greater Geelong’s Gross Regional Product (GRP) increased by $928 million during 2023, reaching $19.6 billion, with health care and social assistance, accommodation and food services, and financial and insurance services among the largest contributors.