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SYDNEY - Competition for jobs has continued to rise and is most evident in the south-eastern states of Australia, a survey shows.
Internet employment website, Seek, said its employment index, which measures the balance between job supply and demand, fell a seasonally adjusted 5.4 points in December, indicating that the Australian labour market continued to soften.
The index was down an adjusted 9.5 points since December 2005.
Seek sales director Joe Powell said the fall in the index confirmed the softening trend in the Australian labour market.
"What this means for jobseekers is that, as the softening continues, competition for jobs will increase," he said.
He said the increased competition for jobs was particularly evident in Victoria, NSW and South Australia.
"This is in contrast to the resource rich states of Western Australia and Queensland, which have tightening labour markets and therefore jobseekers are experiencing less competition," he said.
The number of new job advertisements posted on the Seek website rose 6.2 per cent in December and were up 32.4 per cent in the year to December 2006.
Victoria posted the strongest demand growth at 7.8 per cent, followed by NSW on 5.9 per cent, Western Australia on 6.5 per cent and Queensland on six per cent.
On the other hand, demand fell 3.4 per cent in Tasmania and 4.4 per cent in the Northern Territory.
Applications for jobs using Seek increased 5.5 per cent during the month and were up 22.9 per cent since December 2005.
Growth in job applications rose 6.7 per cent in NSW, 5.1 per cent in Victoria, 2.8 per cent in Queensland and 2.5 per cent in South Australia, while Western Australia remained flat.
Seek found that the number of applications per ad rose 5.7 per cent in December after modest increases in October and November.
The director of the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Professor Peter Sheehan, said the results suggest that the job market in the south-eastern states will remain plentiful, but competition will continue to increase.
"In the resource-rich states of Western Australia and Queensland, where demand for employees outweighs supply, the market will continue to tighten to the favour of the jobseekers," he said.
The employment index showed the hardest to fill jobs in December were in risk consulting, emergency services, radiology and sonography, private practice solicitors and analysts.
Meanwhile, the most competitive jobs were for packers and fillers, call centre operators, process workers, kitchen and sandwich hands and waiting staff.
- AAP
