Internet Vacancy Index—IVI

The Internet Vacancy Index (IVI) is an indicator for labour demand by counting newly lodged job advertisements on the SEEK, CareerOne and Australian JobSearch online jobs boards during the reference month. There are some important conceptual limitations to consider when interpreting the data. IVI does not:

reflect the total number of job advertisements in the Australian labour market
account for jobs advertised through other online job boards, employer websites, social media, newspapers, or other informal methods such as word-of-mouth
take account of multiple positions being advertised in a single new job advertisement.

Job vacancies and job advertisements are different. Some employment opportunities are not advertised by employers, who may instead fill their vacancies via internal promotion or alternative recruitment methods.

Online job advertisements can be slightly biased towards higher skilled positions. Employers with lower skilled vacancies tend to use informal recruitment methods like social media or word-of-mouth more regularly.

Estimated vacancies disaggregated by ANZSCO-4 occupation and region can exhibit considerable volatility and are prone to significant seasonal patterns.

Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) has applied a 6-month moving average for SA4 and occupation. At the state/territory and national levels, data is seasonally adjusted.

Please note IVI data presented at the SA4 level are an experimental series that has been created by corresponding data from the 37 IVI regions across the 88 ABS SA4s. These estimates are subject to a degree of estimation error.

Unless specifically indicated, all data points, calculated metrics and percentages are determined using unrounded values with rounding applied before display.

Labour Force Survey

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labour Force Survey (LFS) statistics are based on a multi-stage area sample of 24,000 private dwellings, resulting in a total sample of about 50,000 people.

The Jobs and Skills Atlas contains state/territory and national labour market indicators from the LFS. These figures are seasonally adjusted (except for the employment to population ratio for persons aged 15-64 by state/territory, which are three-month averages of original estimates and youth unemployment rate which are twelve-month averages of original estimates) and are sourced from the ABS Labour Force, Australia publication. More information on this release, including explanatory material can be found at: Labour Force, Australia | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au).

While averaging data reduces the level of statistical variability and increases the quality of the estimate, it introduces some lag. It is important to note that data averaged over 3, 6 or 12 months will lag actual labour market developments, particularly during periods of significant change (such as during the COVID-19 related lockdowns).

Unless specifically indicated, all data points, calculated metrics, and percentages, are determined using unrounded values with rounding applied before display.

LFS SA4 data

The ABS uses Statistical Area Level 4s (SA4s) to present LFS data at the regional level. There are nearly 90 SA4s covering Australia for which data are available.

LFS statistics are based on the place of usual residence of the people being surveyed and as such the figures show the labour force characteristics for people living in each SA4. It is important to bear in mind that this may not be the same location as someone’s place of work, particularly for SA4s in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

While the LFS includes regional data in its output, it is designed primarily to produce statistics at the state/territory level and above. Regional LFS data has relatively small sample sizes and the sample is not designed to produce estimates of a consistent quality for all regions. Regional LFS figures can be subject to considerable sampling and other statistical variability, which can vary by region. The level of variability can be very high for SA4 data disaggregated by age or sex.

The ABS has recently introduced new, modelled regional estimates, albeit not currently disaggregated by age and sex. At this stage the Atlas continues to use the direct survey regional estimates but modelled regional estimates will be integrated into the Atlas at some stage in the future.

Regional data presented in the Jobs and Skills Atlas are original estimates that have been averaged over 6 or 12 months for SA4 regions, depending on their level of disaggregation. The only exception to this is 15+ employment, unemployment rate and participation rates for the Australian Capital Territory (which are monthly, seasonally adjusted data).

As ABS SA4 data are not adjusted for seasonal variations (other than the exceptions noted above), it is preferable to make year-on-year comparisons within the same time series, as movements between different months of the year may be influenced by seasonal factors.

Youth unemployment rates at the SA4 level can be based on extremely small sample sizes and, as a result, are subject to very high levels of volatility. Given this, youth unemployment rates (and their movements) at the SA4 level may not reflect actual youth labour market conditions and should be interpreted with a high degree of caution.

Further information on ABS LFS data

The ABS provides substantial guidance on LFS data and on using regional estimates from the LFS. JSA recommends that users of these data familiarise themselves with the advice, linked below.

Labour Force Australia, Detailed | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)

ABS Advice on Using Regional LFS Data

Breakdown of Sex

Data values for sex are derived from Labour Force, Australia published by the ABS.

The ABS has committed to implementing the Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables, 2020 in the future.

Breakdown of Age

Date are shown for the age groups of:

15-24 (as for the youth unemployment rate);
25-54; and
55 and over (except for the employment to population ratio, which uses 55-64).

Jobs and Skills Australia Trended Industry and Occupation Employment Data

Jobs and Skills Australia trends data from the detailed LFS to create an estimation of employment over time across all Industries (down to ANZSIC 3-Digit level) and Occupations (down to ANZSCO 4-Digit level) nationally and by state. The trending methodology used by JSA applies significant smoothing meaning it serves as a better reflection of longer-term trends within an occupation or industry.

Please note that this trend series differs from the 1-Digit ANZSIC trend series released by the ABS in Table 4 of the detailed LFS. While state/territory and national data are based on the trend series produced by JSA, the regional data is a 4-quarter average of LFS original data. As a result, care should be taken when making any comparisons between them.

For certain industries, values over the COVID period (March 2020 to November 2021) are not included and care should be taken when referring to any figure from this period. Figures may also be subject to historical revisions in the future.

Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation—NERO

NERO provides monthly estimates of occupational employment by region, previously only available every five years from the ABS Census of Population and Housing. As an experimental series NERO estimates have been smoothed to provide an indication of long-term trends in local labour markets. Jobs and Skills Australia encourages the use of a combination of data sources alongside NERO such as:

Jobs and Skill Australia Internet Vacancy Index
Jobs and Skills Australia Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey
updated information at ABS Weekly Payroll Jobs
current content - Labour Force Survey, to analyse current labour market trends.

For more caveat information, please see the NERO Dashboard.

NERO data is modelled to represent the 15th day of each month.

Comparing Internet Vacancy Index (IVI) with NERO employment data

Misalignments between IVI and NERO vacancies can occur by SA4 as:

IVI data occupation vacancies are based on 'place of work' whereas NERO data for employment is based on 'place of usual residence'. This misalignment is particularly relevant in the case of SA4 regions for Capital Cities. Accordingly, vacancies and employment by occupation are not strictly comparable.

Occupation Shortage List (OSL)

The Occupation Shortage List (OSL), formerly known as the Skill Priority List (SPL), provides a current rating of occupations in shortage in Australia and in each state and territory. In the Atlas, when an SA4 is selected, the OSL rating for the corresponding state or territory is presented.

The ratings provide information about shortage based on evidence from data modelling, statistical analysis of the labour market, stakeholder consultation, employer surveys, and additional engagements with various stakeholder groups.

The OSL has four ratings to classify the shortage status on a specific occupation:

Shortage (S): An occupation is in national shortage or overall shortage. This occurs when employers are unable to fill or have considerable difficulty filling vacancies for an occupation or cannot meet significant specialised skill needs within that occupation, at current levels of remuneration and conditions of employment and in reasonably accessible locations. In some cases, shortages may be apparent for specialisations within the occupation, but not for all instances of that occupation. In these cases, provided there is sufficient evidence, that occupation will still be considered in shortage.
Regional shortage (R): Shortages are restricted to regional areas.
Metro shortage (M): Shortages are restricted to metropolitan areas.
No shortage (NS): Research has not identified any significant difficulty of filling vacancies.

For some occupations, a lack of evidence will, by default, result in an occupation being rated as ‘No Shortage’.

An occupation may be assessed as being in shortage even though not all specialisations are in shortage. A rating of national shortage does not mean that employers in every geographical location have difficulty recruiting. While an occupation can be considered in shortage, it is still possible that job seekers can face significant competition for positions due to the level of experience or specialisations required. Employers can continue to have difficulty recruiting for occupations that are not in shortage.

Unless specifically indicated, all data points, calculated metrics, and percentages, are determined using unrounded values with rounding applied before display.

VOCSTATS

The count of students enrolling and completing their qualification in a given year reflect a raw count for the selected area. These figures should not be directly compared to each other as they do not represent the same cohort of students enrolling and completing in the same year. Duration of qualification, study-mode (full-time study and part-time study), and location at commencement and completion of a qualification vary student to student. This can limit the usefulness of comparing enrolments to completions and prevents calculations, such as Rate of Completion.

VET National Data Asset (VNDA)

VNDA insights within the Atlas Pro are available at a national level for the top 500 courses by completion rate in the 2019-2020 financial year. Therefore, the majority of qualifications listed within the Training tab, will not have a National Outcomes Indicators component.

The Atlas shows latest VET activity as reported by NCVER. The top 500 qualifications from VNDA have been linked to this NCVER data through the national register of VET and ‘Training.gov.au' also known as TGA.

When a current qualification from NCVER is not available in VNDA but has a supersession relationship (identified through TGA) with a VNDA qualification, a list of the related qualifications is provided.

Jobs and Skills Atlas

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