Employment data is insightful. When and where jobs are being created is a valuable insight into where growth will occur, both economically and from a population perspective.
Where there is population growth, there is demand for housing (and other goods and services); and where there are jobs, there will be population growth.
I find the job vacancies data offers us the best and most accurate insight into where jobs are available.
Job vacancies data covers the proportion of businesses who are currently advertising a job (or jobs).
This week’s blog is full of valuable insights into job vacancies, and while data heavy, is incredibly beneficial for your property investment journey and identifying which areas will deliver the best returns.
Table 1 shows which States and Territories are recording the highest proportion of job vacancies as of the middle of 2023:
ABS: proportion of businesses reporting vacancies, states and territories (%).
Perhaps no surprise, four of the top five with the highest proportion of jobs available are the largest capital cities in Australia. Interestingly, the Northern Territory is also quite high.
Table 2 shows the change between 2022 and 2023, where the data provides another layer:
ABS: proportion of businesses reporting vacancies, states and territories (%).
As the data demonstrates, the ACT, Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales are the only states and territories where more businesses have jobs advertised than this time last year.
Table 3 shows the industries of these businesses reporting the largest vacancies:
ABS: proportion of businesses reporting vacancies, industry (%).
Table 3 suggests businesses operating in the energy, hospitality, services, health and education sectors have the highest vacancies.
Finally, table 4 shows which of these industries have experienced the biggest change between 2022 and 2023:
ABS: proportion of businesses reporting vacancies, industry (%).
There are a lot of the same industries appearing high up in tables 3 and 4. Public administration and safety were both in the top 5 in table 3, but had the biggest drop between 2022 and 2023, suggesting the vacancies are being filled quickly. The inverse was true for transport, postal and warehousing with strong growth year on year.
So, what does it all mean?
The places with the largest job growth today are the ACT, Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales, and the largest growth by industry is the energy, hospitality, services, health and education sectors. The industrial and warehousing industries are also of note thanks to its growth.
Investing in places where these industries and geographical locations collide means investing in areas with strong economic and population growth, making them a safe bet.
For me personally, South Australia or Queensland are the strongest contenders, in places near a capital city, airport, hospital, aged care, university, schools and highways.
The unemployment data released this week has Australia’s unemployment rate at 3.7 per cent. A total of 14.1 million Australians have a job.
An amazing set of numbers no matter which way you look at them.
The last time Australia had an unemployment rate this low was in the 1970’s.
