SEEK Employment Dashboard, June 2026
*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to May data.
AI Insights:
Demand for AI skills in job ads has slowed slightly, rising 3.2% m/m and 64.1% y/y.
The highest growth in demand for AI skills over the past year has been in Agentic AI (174.4% y/y) and AI ethics & governance (123.2% y/y).
National Insights:
Job ads fell 0.9% m/m in June 2026, extending the trend of gradual decline, which has continued for the past eleven months.
Applications per job ad grew 2.0% m/m and are now at their highest level on record.
State and Territory Insights:
Western Australia and South Australia were the only states to record a rise in job ads m/m, both extending over six months of continued growth.
The largest monthly declines were recorded in the Northern Territory (-1.5%), Tasmania (-1.4%) and New South Wales (-1.3%).
Industry Insights:
Engineering, Construction and Mining, Resources & Energy are among the five industries to record annual growth.
While only a few industries recorded monthly rises in June, they included large industries such as Trades & Services (0.5%) and Hospitality & Tourism (0.2%).
SEEK Chief Economist, Dr Blair Chapman says:
“Job ads continued their incremental decline in June, due to subdued hiring activity in the Professional and Public sectors. Meanwhile a growing number of trades-based and technical roles recorded increased demand. This reinforces the story of a labour market in transition.
“We are seeing a reallocation of hiring activity away from sectors that thrived in the post-pandemic rebound, and toward industries underpinned by long-term investment in infrastructure, resources and new build projects.
“What's particularly striking is the durability of South Australia and Western Australia against the national trend, with a broad range of industries growing across both states.
"For jobseekers, the data reinforces that current opportunities are increasingly concentrated in skilled trades, labour and technical roles. While demand for AI skills is growing, in particular with reference to Generative AI and ethics, this demand is currently only evident in a small proportion of jobs.”
AI Insights
Demand for AI-related skills has risen 3.2% m/m, although the rate of growth has slowed slightly, from 70.8% y/y in May to 64.1% y/y in June.
The share of job ads that mention these skills has just ticked over to 2.0% of total ads in June, so while AI skills are increasingly mentioned in a larger pool of job ads, it remains a very small proportion.
The most common industries to require AI skills remain Information & Communication Technology, where 12.9% of total job ads mention AI skills, and Marketing & Communications (6.8%). Consulting & Strategy is now the third most common to mention AI skills (5.0%), overtaking Science & Technology (4.8%).
Figure 1: The SEEK AI Gauge – Measure of job ads that include AI-related keywords. Shown as an index.
In line with the broad-based, incremental decline in job ads, ad volumes at all levels of automation exposure have now declined y/y. While in previous months ads with low-level exposure were still slightly higher y/y, they are now 1.2% lower, and high-level exposure roles are down 9.6% y/y.
Figure 2: Annual job ad growth by average task automation score - low, medium and high AI automation.
Among the most common AI skills referenced in job ads are references to Generative AI, Machine Learning and Computer Vision. Agentic AI skills (up 174.4% y/y) and AI ethics & governance related experience (123.2% y/y) are increasingly in demand, demonstrating the need for responsible frameworks to guide the rise of AI adoption within organisations.
Figure 3: Growth in references to Agentic AI skills and AI ethics and governance skills over time. Shown as an index.
National Insights
Job ads dropped 0.9% in June, continuing a pattern of soft but sustained decline since July last year. Annually, job ads have fallen 5.8%, the steepest year-on-year contraction recorded since early 2025.
The ongoing decline reflects subdued hiring activity within Professional, Public and Consumer Services roles across the past year, while most roles within the Construction and Industrial sectors have risen over the past few months.
At the same time, candidates are continuing to apply in growing numbers, with applications per job ad rising 2.0% m/m.
Figure 4: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m
State and Territory Insights
Continuing months of incremental growth, Western Australia and South Australia were the two states to record higher job ads in June, up 0.5% and 0.2% respectively. In both states, most industries recorded rising job ad volumes, led by Hospitality & Tourism in South Australia (2.8% m/m) and Mining Resources & Energy (0.9% m/m) in Western Australia.
Western Australia was also the only state or territory to record annual growth (1.5% y/y) which was led by ongoing demand in Construction (13.5% y/y), Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (7.4% y/y) and Engineering (16.4% y/y).
On the eastern seaboard, New South Wales dropped 1.3% m/m while Victoria fell a more subdued 0.7% m/m. In both states, this was predominantly led by declining demand for Retail & Consumer Products, Healthcare & Medical and Administration & Office Support workers.
Tasmania, which was the only state or territory where job ads rose in May, saw ad volume drop 1.4% in June and is down 9.6% y/y.
The Northern Territory recorded the largest monthly decline in June and is down 12.8% y/y. This is behind only the Australian Capital Territory for annual decline (-13.1%). Both territories are exposed to public sector demand.
Figure 5: State and territory job ad growth/decline comparing i) June 2026 to May 2026 (m/m) and ii) June 2026 to June 2025 (y/y).
Industry Insights
The gap between the Construction and Industrial sectors and the Professional and Public sectors widened further in June, reflecting sustained activity in infrastructure, housing and resources while government and administrative roles continued to cool.
Annually, demand for workers within the Industrial sector comprising of Mining, Resources & Energy and Farming, Animals & Conservation are up 4.5% y/y, while demand within the Construction sector, which includes Construction and Trades & Service roles, has grown 2.3% y/y.
By contrast, industries dependent on discretionary business spending or government budgets declined. Government & Defence volumes fell 16.8% y/y, Call Centre & Customer Service declined 14.6% y/y and Retail & Consumer Products declined 12.9% y/y.
In the shorter term, only a handful of industries recorded monthly growth in June, led by the largest hiring industry, Trades & Services (0.5% m/m), alongside Hospitality & Tourism which appears to have stabilised over the past few months (0.2% m/m) and Consulting & Strategy (0.2% m/m).
Conversely, Retail & Consumer Products fell to the largest extent, down 2.2% m/m, followed by Insurance & Superannuation (-2.0% m/m) and Real Estate & Property (-1.6% m/m). Healthcare & Medical, one of the largest industries by ad volume, fell 1.0% m/m and was the biggest driver of overall decline.
Figure 6: Annual job ad trend by sector
Figure 7: National SEEK job ad percentage change by industry (June 2026 vs May 2026) – Ordered by job ad volume.
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.