Last week, before the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the July labour force survey, Alex Joiner posted the below chart showing how Victoria had the highest unemployment rate and lowest private sector wage growth out of the states:
Joiner also published the following chart showing how Victoria’s unemployment rate (4.55%) was well above the rest of the nation (3.88%) in July.
Separate data from Jobs & Skills Australia likewise showed that Victoria recorded the sharpest decline in job vacancies in the nation in July (down by 7.0%), as well as through the year (down 32.1%):
Last Thursday, the ABS released the July labour force survey, which was more of the same, with Victoria’s unemployment rate edging higher to 4.60%, well above the national average of 4.22%:
SEEK also released its July employment data, which is summarised below by Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro.
As shown in the following chart, Victoria along with NSW experienced the sharpest decline in new job ads out of Australia’s states and are now tracking well below pre-pandemic levels:
More concerning, the number of applications per job ad has risen the most out of Australia’s states, suggesting the labour market is oversupplied with workers:
Based on the above data, Victoria is the worst state in Australia for seeking a job.
