More people are applying for each job than ever before, new data shows

New data has confirmed what frustrated Australian job seekers already know: the number of people applying for every job is rising rapidly.

According to the latest SEEK Employment Report for July, applications per job ad have risen every month since January, and are now at a record high.

This intense competition comes as available job listings continue to cool nationwide, falling by 0.4 per cent month-on-month and sitting 6.0 per cent lower than the same time last year.

But while overall job ad volumes are still declining, SEEK chief economist Dr Blair Chapman pointed to a glimmer of hope, with the pace of the slowdown easing across many sectors.

“Job ads are declining at a slower pace and across a slightly narrower range of industries,” Chapman said. 

There had been steady growth in large construction and trade-based sectors, fuelled by an infrastructure boom in data centre planning, construction and maintenance, he said.

Do you have a story about job hunting? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au

Data centre roles have more than doubled nationally over the past 12 months, surging by 109.5 per cent year-on-year. 

South Australia has become the focal point of this boom, recording a staggering 248.3 per cent annual rise in data centre roles, which helped propel overall job ad growth in the state up by 0.4 per cent for both the month and the year.

Other industries experiencing hiring surges above and beyond the usual seasonal trends include hospitality and tourism and sports and recreation.

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Artificial intelligence is also quietly rewriting job requirements across corporate Australia. SEEK reported that while references to AI skills are present in just 2.1 per cent of total listings, demand for these capabilities grew 60.4 per cent over the past year.

Last month, the latest unemployment figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed the national jobless rate holding steady at 4.4 per cent, even as an extra 13,000 people entered unemployment.

Despite the tougher climate, the ABS reported a surprising surge in employment, with 76,000 Australians securing work in a single month—a figure far stronger than traditional seasonal expectations. 

ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick explained that part of this spike stemmed from delayed starts, with a significant portion of new workers waiting on positions that had been lined up in prior weeks.

RBA Governor Michele Bullock addressed the issue of unemployment on Tuesday after the central bank opted to keep interest rates on hold.

Bullock said that while the official unemployment rate is expected to drift gradually upwards toward 4.8 per cent to help tame inflation, she did not believe the underlying picture was one of mass layoffs.

“I don’t like people losing their jobs generally. It’s stressful for them,” Bullock said during a press conference. 

“When we talk about seeing the forecast for the unemployment rate rise, if you look at our forecasts, employment itself is still growing. So it’s not like massive masses of people losing their job. 

“Employment’s still growing, but it just means that there are possibly less jobs available. It’s taking longer for people to find work and that sort of thing.”

Bullock said the RBA remained acutely aware of its dual mandate to keep inflation low without pushing jobless numbers higher than necessary.