COVID-19: Australia job vacancies doubled since pandemic began

Job openings in the Australian labour market have doubled since the Covid epidemic, not just recovered. Currently, there are 480,100 open positions in the country as per the most recent Australia Bureaus of Statistics report, a growth of 111.1 per cent since February 2020. Australia approaches what is regarded as full rate of employment, or practically everyone who is willing and able to work is getting a job. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 per cent in June. Healthcare and social assistance are the industries with the highest absolute number of job openings, The Guardian reported.

Arts and recreation are in the lead when it comes to the increase in vacancies since Covid, accounting for 250 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, followed by the lodging, food services and real estate.

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David Rumbens, a partner at Deloitte Access Economics, said that Finance, IT, insurance, Mining services, and public administration were amongst the most exposed industries exposed to a lack of skilled migrants. He further added that retail, hospitality, and lodging suffered due to a lack of foreign students and working vacationers.

Rumbens claimed that there was “always a degree of mismatch between the unemployed and job vacancies,” The Guardian reported. He further mentioned that IT is a field in which Australia’s workforce has historically lacked training, with migration action as a stopgap measure.

As per data released recently from the National Skills Commission, there have been twice as many job openings in the last three years in Australia.

The Pacific Labour Scheme has been expanded by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to include elderly care employees, allowing people from Pacific Island countries to work to fill in the skills gaps in Australia, reported news.au.

(With inputs from agencies)

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