The job market in Australia is looking up with job vacancies rising across the private and public sectors and in most industries, according to the latest Australian Bureau of statistics data.

Total job vacancies in February 2016 were up 3.1 per cent or by 172,900 positions on November 2015 figures, the ABS data revealed.

Good news on the job front with job vacancies rising across the country

The number of job vacancies in the private sector was 157,000 in February 2016, an increase of 2.7 per cent from November 2015.

The number of job vacancies in the public sector was 15,900 in February 2016, an increase of 6.8 per cent from November 2015.

The latest data from SEEK also shows the number of new job ads increased 5.7 per cent from February 2015 year on year to February 2016

Buoying this increase are the eastern states, which show strong year on year growth.

The two largest employing states New South Wales and Victoria were up 11.6 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively.

Queensland also showed signs of recovering from the mining downturn with new job ads up 3.9 per cent over the 12 months and South Australia is up 7.7 per cent.

Tasmania and ACT also posted strong year on year growth, up 10.7 per cent and 26.3 per cent respectively.

SEEK Employment Managing Director, Michael Ilczynski said it was encouraging to see not only strong year on year growth across almost all states and territories in Australia but also the growth through a wide variety of industries.

Mr Ilczynskisaid 24 out of 28 industries listed on SEEK experienced increases in job advertising over the past 12 months.

The Information & Communications Technology (ICT) industry remains strong nationwide, experiencing 10 per cent year on year growth to February 2016, he said.

Mr Ilczynski said that, at a state level, the growth in job ads in the ICT sector reflects the overall health of the employment market nationwide.

“Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland, ACT and New South Wales all experienced double digit growth in ICT job ads. New South Wales which has the largest number of opportunities advertised increased by 10 per cent year on year. There are now over 7,500 ICT jobs advertised through New South Wales, which is fantastic for those looking for work in that industry,” he said.

Given the challenging employment market in Western Australia it is not surprising to see ICT roles declined year on year,” Mr Ilczynski said.

“We are not surprised to see that given the tough environment Western Australian businesses are facing as a result of the pull-back in mining investment that job opportunities in IT have gone down. It’s likely that businesses don’t have the resources to go ahead with new IT infrastructures or projects, which is having a direct reflection on their hiring needs,”  he said.

At a national level there has been strong year on year growth in demand for IT Security professionals (57 per cent), Technical Writers – those who produce easily accessible and digestible content for printed and online documents, such as user guides, manuals, intranet and website pages – (47 per cent) and Product Managers and Developers (42 per cent), the SEEK data showed.

According to Mark Nielsen, APAC CEO of global IT recruitment specialist Talent International, the increase in IT security job listings can be attributed to sophisticated artificial intelligence and the unprecedented uptake of cloud computing over the past 12 months by Australian businesses, fuelling a demand for specialists to keep networks secure.

“With businesses expanding their offerings to meet customer web and mobility requirements, coupled with the advancement in devices with artificial intelligence capabilities, it is now more important than ever to be able to anticipate the level of sophistication possible when it comes to cybercrimes,” Mr Neilson said.

“There has been a significant increase in the way governments, businesses and people rely on technology and mobility as well as the rapid expansion of cloud computing, and as a result, IT security is one of the fastest growing areas we are seeing in the industry today,” he said.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist