Job opportunities are bouncing back in Australia in the wake of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the broad lockdowns it brought, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows.

The health and social care, administration and professional & technical services sectors led the employment growth but there was also significant numbers of new jobs in construction, manufacturing and financial services. 

Total job vacancies in August 2020 were 206,000, an increase of 59.4 per cent from May. In the private sector, there were 184,100 vacancies in August, an increase of 65.4 per cent on the May figure.

In the public sector vacancies were 21,900 in August, an increase of 22 per cent on the May figure.

Overall, job vacancies increased by 76,800, or 59.4 per cent, in the three months to August. This followed the largest fall in job vacancies since records have been kept because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions on people and businesses, the ABS report said.

The largest number of jobs were found in the health care and social assistance sector with 28,400 vacancies, followed by administrative and support services with 24,200 and professional, scientific and technical services with 23,500 vacancies.

There were 18,400 jobs available in retail trade, 15,900 in construction, 13,500 in manufacturing and 12,300 in the finance and insurance services sector.

All states and territories recorded increases in job vacancies in August compared with May, the ABS data shows.

The two biggest states, New South Wales and Victoria, were still well below the pre pandemic levels of vacancies in February 2020, as was the Australian Capital Territory.

But vacancies in many states surged in the August quarter to higher levels than those seen in February, as restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19 were progressively eased in parts of the economy.