Every figure on this page names its source, the exact release it came from, and the date we checked it. Nothing here is estimated, averaged across sources, or rounded into a claim.
Last updated 27 July 2026. Figures carry their own release dates and check dates, because the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes monthly, Jobs and Skills Australia publishes monthly and annually, and award rates change once a year.
Free to cite. Use any figure on this page. Link to skilledhiring.com/statistics so your readers reach the maintained version and the original source. No permission needed and no need to ask. Every figure has its own link: use "Copy link to this statistic" to point at one.
Suggested citation: Skilled Hiring, Australian Hiring and Pay Statistics, skilledhiring.com/statistics, updated 27 July 2026.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, monthly and quarterly series.
4.4%
The ABS reported the rate rose 0.1 percentage points in unrounded seasonally adjusted terms, with the number of unemployed people increasing by 12,700 to 686,800. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, Australia, released 23 July 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
67.0%
The employment to population ratio also rose 0.3 points, to 64.0 per cent, with 14,823,300 people employed. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, Australia, released 23 July 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
10.9%
Underemployment rose 0.2 percentage points and underutilisation rose 0.3 points on the month. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, Australia, released 23 July 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
How many roles are open, and how hard employers are finding them to fill.
329,500
Private sector vacancies were 293,800 and public sector 35,700, with the public sector down 7.9 per cent on the quarter. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Job Vacancies, Australia, released 25 June 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated quarterly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
30.3%
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Job Vacancies, Australia, released 25 June 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated quarterly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
44%
That is up 2 percentage points on the month and unchanged on a year earlier. It sits 31 percentage points below the record high of 75 per cent in July 2022. Jobs and Skills Australia, Recruitment Insights Report, June 2026 (PDF), from the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
41%
Up 4 percentage points on the month and 2 points above June 2025, but 31 points below the August 2022 peak of 72 per cent. Jobs and Skills Australia, Recruitment Insights Report, June 2026 (PDF). Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
68.2%
That is 3.3 percentage points lower than a year earlier. The gap between metropolitan and regional fill rates widened to 4.6 percentage points, reversing a narrowing trend. Jobs and Skills Australia, Occupation Shortage Report, published 3 June 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated quarterly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
55.5%
Skill level 3 was the hardest group to fill. Jobs and Skills Australia, Occupation Shortage Report, published 3 June 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated quarterly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
205,400
Jobs and Skills Australia notes there are around 20 per cent more advertisements in the market now than the monthly average for 2019. Jobs and Skills Australia, Internet Vacancy Index, released 22 July 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
From the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, the successor to the Skills Priority List. The 2025 edition, published October 2025, is the current one.
29%
Down 4 percentage points from 33 per cent in 2024 and more than 7 points below the 36 per cent peak in 2023. Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025 Occupation Shortage List Key Findings Report (PDF), published October 2025. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated annually.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
51%
Jobs and Skills Australia noted these were particularly in construction, engineering and automotive trades. Professionals were 37 per cent (52 occupations), machinery operators and drivers 5 per cent (7). No clerical and administrative, sales or labourer occupations were in persistent shortage. Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025 Occupation Shortage List Key Findings Report (PDF), Table 2. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated annually.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
21
Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025 Occupation Shortage List Key Findings Report (PDF), published October 2025. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated annually.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
What wages are doing, and what the legal floor moved to on 1 July 2026.
4.75%
The Fair Work Commission decision states that modern award minimum wage rates will be increased by 4.75 per cent. The decision also adjusted the lowest paid classifications, so the increase is not uniform at the bottom of the scale. Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2026 decision, [2026] FWCFB 3500 (PDF), handed down 2 June 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated annually.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
$26.44
An entry level rate applying to the first six months or less of employment must be at least $978.10 a week or $25.74 an hour. Fair Work Ombudsman, Minimum wages increase from 1 July 2026, and Fair Work Commission decision [2026] FWCFB 3500. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated annually.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
21.1%
Award reliance has risen across surveys: 20.5 per cent in 2021, 20.7 per cent in 2023 and 21.1 per cent in 2025. Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2026 decision, [2026] FWCFB 3500 (PDF), citing ABS Employee Earnings and Hours 2025. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated annually.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
3.3%
Private sector wages rose 3.2 per cent annually and public sector 3.3 per cent. Health care and social assistance was the largest industry contributor to quarterly growth. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Wage Price Index, Australia, released 13 May 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated quarterly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
$2,051.10
Average total earnings for all employees were $1,562.40 a week, up 3.4 per cent. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, released 26 February 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated twice yearly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
4.2%
SEEK, Advertised Salary Index, June 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly. Note this measures advertised salaries, not paid wages, so it is not directly comparable to the Wage Price Index above.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
-5.8%
Trades and services was one of only two industries to rise on the month, up 0.5 per cent, alongside hospitality and tourism at 0.2 per cent. Applications per job ad rose 2.0 per cent on the month and are at their highest level on record, although SEEK notes that metric runs a month behind. SEEK, Employment Report, June 2026, listed 23 July 2026. Checked 27 July 2026. Updated monthly.
A newer release may be available. Verify at the source before quoting.
We checked these while building this page and could not trace them to a primary source, or found they were being misdated. Listed here because a wrong number that everyone repeats is worse than no number.
No Australian Bureau of Statistics or Jobs and Skills Australia series measures days to fill. What does exist is the vacancy fill rate (68.2 per cent in the March quarter of 2026) and the share of recruiting employers unable to fill within a month (41 per cent in June 2026), both above. Any days-to-fill figure circulating for Australia is not government data.
There is no such document. The list was renamed the Occupation Shortage List, and the current edition is 2025, published October 2025. Several migration and relocation sites publish "2026 skills shortage list" pages with no primary citation.
The only ABS figure of that shape is 31 per cent of employing businesses in June 2022, from Business Conditions and Sentiments. That survey's final release was June 2026 and it no longer asks the question. The current, correctly dated figure is Jobs and Skills Australia's 44 per cent recruitment difficulty rate for June 2026, which measures something different: difficulty among employers who were actually recruiting.
That figure comes from the 2023 Skills Priority List. The 2025 Occupation Shortage List does not state a 2025 trades percentage in its text. The traceable current figures are that trades made up 51 per cent of persistently short occupations from 2021 to 2025, and Jobs and Skills Australia's own summary that nearly half of trade roles remain in shortage.
The 29 per cent is correct, but Jobs and Skills Australia's wording is "in national shortage". The word "acute" is added by third party sites.
SEEK's monthly report publishes percentage changes in an index, not an average count of applications per advertisement. Any absolute count attributed to that report could not be traced.
Every figure on this page carries a named source, a link to the exact release it came from, the period it measures, and the date we checked it. Where the source's own wording matters, we quote it.
These are the rules we hold ourselves to, published so you can hold us to them:
A figure is never changed in place without an entry in the change log below, and the superseded value is kept there. If a source revises a number, we keep the same link anchor and note the revision. If a source withdraws a number, we say so rather than deleting it, because someone may already have cited it.
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