Report: Marketing job ads showing strong recovery

Marketing and communications job ads were up 23 per cent in February from January 2021, according to the latest SEEK Employment report.

It was the biggest rise across all the sectors, including trades, accounting, engineering and ICT. By contract, advertising, arts and media ads were up 13 per cent and design and architecture was up 9 per cent for the period.

However, ads for professional services was the only category to decline, still affected by working from home arrangements in place across many workplaces as the pandemic continues.

“Professional services is the only sector to still be showing a year-on-year decline; however, 10.1 per cent is the smallest gap we have seen and is being more than made up for by the other sectors. Professional Services roles tend to be the more office-based corporate roles that are based in a CBD,” said SEEK A/NZ MD, Kendra Banks.

Across the board, SEEK job ads were up 12.4 per cent year-on-year, the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year job ad growth and SEEK job ads were up by 4.1 per cent month-on-month. The top three industries contributing to year-on-year growth were trades and services, hospitality and tourism and healthcare and medical.

“It is close to 12 months since COVID-19 severely impacted the employment market, and we are pleased to observe continued improvement with the healthiest year-on-year job ad growth since the pandemic began,” Banks said.

“For the first time since before the pandemic, all states and territories saw year-on-year growth in job ads posted on seek.com.au. New South Wales and ACT were the only two states, before last month, not to have returned to pre-COVID levels."

Jobs with the highest growth run from customer service assistant, up 637 per cent, and retail team member, up 522 per cent, to hospitality room attendants, up 298 per cent, and retail merchandiser and housekeeping attendant, both up just over 200 per cent.

In terms of the affect of the pandemic, restrictions played a big part in 2020's employment market. As COVID-19 restrictions were imposed, the impact on job ads was immediate. However, the reverse was also true; when restrictions were lifted there was an uptick in job ad volumes immediately.

“We were reminded in February that restrictions and lockdowns will still be a factor in 2021, with Western Australia and Victoria both experiencing short lockdowns. Looking at the weekly job ad numbers, lockdowns have a noticeable impact on job ad postings; however, recruitment activity recovers once restrictions lift,” said Banks.

“With continued, strong month-on-month growth, off the back of an already strong January, it is great to see all states and territories showing new job ads at levels higher than pre-COVID."

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