SEEK Employment Report - May
*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to April data.
AI Insights:
References to AI-related skills in job ads continue to grow, rising 2.9% m/m and 68.6% y/y.
The decline in overall job ad volumes is weighted towards occupations with high automation exposure, which comprise less than 10% of job ads on SEEK.
National Insights:
Job ads fell 0.8% m/m and have declined 4.5% y/y.
Applications per job ad have jumped 3.6% m/m and are now 5.5% higher y/y.
State and Territory Insights:
Tasmania was the one state to record job ad growth in May, up 0.8%.
Annually, job ads in Western Australia have grown 0.4% y/y, while all other states and territories have recorded a decline.
Applications per job ad rose across the board, though more significantly in Victoria and Queensland (both 6.8% q/q).
Industry Insights:
Ad volumes rose in Engineering and Science & Technology (both up 2.0% m/m), and Hospitality & Tourism and Legal (both rising 0.1% m/m).
Job ads in Engineering (16.0% y/y) and Science & Technology (7.0% y/y) have also grown annually, along with Construction (7.8%), Mining, Resources & Energy (5.6%) and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (3.1%).
SEEK Chief Economist, Dr Blair Chapman says:
“Job ad volumes softened in May, with hiring falling across most parts of the country and most industries. While the monthly decline is not especially sharp, it does suggest employers are continuing to act cautiously in the current environment.
“Job ads in high exposure automation occupations, which includes roles in Professional and Consumer Services, are declining. It is unlikely that AI is directly replacing these jobs, but the inclination to do more with less, and general market hesitation due to macro global factors, are likely coming together to put a pause on new hiring for these types of roles.
“Conversely, infrastructure and resources-related hiring is still providing support to the labour market, with roles in Engineering, Construction and Mining, Resources & Energy continuing to outperform over the year, even as many consumer-facing and professional services categories lose momentum.”
AI Insights
SEEK’s AI Gauge demonstrates the continued growth in demand for AI-related skills, with a 2.9% rise in AI mentions m/m, though the rate of growth has declined from 3.3% the month prior. Annually references have risen 68.6% y/y, down from 76.6% in the year to April.
AI references are only present in 1.9% of all job ads, demonstrating the large number of roles that are not yet being impacted by the rise of AI.
Figure 1: The SEEK AI Gauge – Measure of job ads that include AI-related keywords, shown as an index
Job ads with low automation exposure, which make up the majority of all job ads on SEEK, continue to grow, although the rate of growth has slowed to 0.4% m/m. Roles with medium and high automation exposure are declining, with medium-level exposure roles down 4.3% m/m and high exposure roles down 8.2%.
Figure 2: Annual job ad growth by average task automation score - low, medium and high AI automation
Job ads for Information & Communication Technology and Marketing & Communications are still the most likely to reference AI-skills, with Science & Technology now the third most likely, jumping up three places.
Figure 3: AI-mentions in jobs ads, shown as a share of total job ads by classification 2019 to May 2026
National Insights
Job ad volumes continued their gradual downward trend in May, dropping 0.8% from April. After adjustment, job ads have now been declining steadily since January.
The slowdown was broad-based, with all sectors falling m/m and every state and territory except Tasmania recording a decline.
Applications per job ad rose 3.6% m/m and are now 5.5% higher y/y as competition among candidates continues to grow from its already elevated levels.
Figure 4: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m
State and Territory Insights
Tasmania was the only state to record an increase in job ads in May, up 0.8% m/m, with the positive trend continuing since February. Rising demand for workers within the Construction and Industrial sectors led much of the growth over recent months, but was also bolstered by an 8.0% jump in Education & Training job ads m/m.
In Western Australia job ad volumes remained relatively stagnant, dropping just 0.1% m/m, but it is the only region where ads have grown y/y (0.4%). This was driven predominantly by rising demand within Mining, Resources & Energy (12.5% y/y) and Construction (12.8% y/y).
Elsewhere, labour market conditions softened. The largest decline was recorded in New South Wales (-1.3% m/m), followed by Victoria (-1.1% m/m) and the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland (both -1.0% m/m).
Applications per job ad have been growing in all states and territories over the past year, and in recent months, there have been significant rises in Queensland and Victoria (both 6.8% q/q) and Tasmania (5.9% q/q).
Figure 5: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing i) May 2026 to April 2026 (m/m) and ii) May 2026 to May 2025 (y/y).
Industry Insights
Monthly growth in May was concentrated within Engineering (2.0% m/m) and Science & Technology (2.0% m/m) with a slight increase in Legal (0.1% m/m).
These gains stand out against modest falls in large hiring industries such as Trades & Services (-1.6% m/m), Administration & Office Support (-1.3% m/m) and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (-0.6% m/m).
The annual trend saw double-digit decline in some Professional and Consumer Services industries, notably Call Centre & Customer Service (-18.6% y/y), Information & Communication Technology (-11.7% y/y) and Banking & Financial Services (-12.8% y/y).
In contrast, pockets within the Construction and Industrial sectors have risen y/y, leading to these sectors recording modest annual growth overall. Driving this was increased hiring for large-scale build and infrastructure projects with industries such as Engineering (16.0% y/y), Construction (7.8% y/y) and Mining, Resources & Energy (5.6% y/y) posting notable annual gains against a backdrop of decline.
Figure 6: Annual job ad trend by sector
Figure 7: National SEEK job ad percentage change by industry (May 2026 vs April2026) – Ordered by job ad volume
ENDS
Banner image credit: Mikael Blomkvist
More information about how the SEEK Employment Report is put together and the current data can be found here.
About the SEEK Employment Report
The SEEK Employment Report is Australia’s leading employment index and provides a comprehensive overview of the Australian Employment Marketplace. The report includes the SEEK Employment Index (SEI) which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.
To improve this index and continuously ensure its market accuracy, SEEK has implemented two main changes to the data within these reports since late 2025; i) Reporting on trend estimates rather than seasonally adjusted estimates from August 2025 onwards and ii) The inclusion of company listings in the SEI from November 2025.
The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including a) the trend adjustments applied to the SEI; and b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI.
Caution is recommended when interpreting trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks.
The applications per ad index contains a series break at Jan 2016 when the calculation of this series changed from using gross variables (inclusive of all SEEK job ads) to net variables (removing duplicate job ads). This change has a negligible impact on recent data points, but caution is recommended when interpreting data immediately following the series break, and particularly in 2016 where growth rates have not been adjusted for the series break.
Disclaimer: The Data should be viewed and regarded as standalone information and should not be aggregated with any other information whether such information has been previously provided by SEEK Limited, ("SEEK").
The Data is given in summary form and whilst care has been taken in its preparation, SEEK makes no representations whatsoever about its completeness or accuracy. SEEK expressly bears no responsibility or liability for any reliance placed by you on the Data, or from the use of the Data by you.