Job Vacancy Rate

The job vacancy rate is the proportion vacant positions (number) to total positions (vacant positions plus employed persons ):

Technically this ratio will miss-state the vacancy rate to the extent that 2 employed persons share one position (for example through job sharing), or 1 employed person occupies multiple positions (for example casual workers employed at multiple organisations). The ratio is nevertheless useful in adjusting the vacancy numbers to adjust for overall labour force growth.

There are two sources of job vacancies for Australia, they are compared in the chart below. The first is quarterly data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, derived from the labour force establishment survey. The second is Jobs and Skills Australia's monthly internet job advertisement index.

Data Sources

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Job Vacancies, Australia
Jobs and Skills Austrtalia, Internet Vacancy Index

Beveridge Curve

Describes the relationship between the unemployment rate and the vacancy rate across the business cycle. As the economy grows, unemployment decreases and as labour gets harder to find vacancies increase.