Job ads are up so it’s a good time to have a crack at the labour market.

Compared to Pre-Covid figures, there were 78,200 job advertisements in July.

Nationally, that’s 47.7 per cent up on July 2019.

In SA, it’s up a whopping 68 per cent.

That’s why I’m run off my feet.

The hot job market is mainly due to international travel restrictions put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 cutting off a key source of professionals for major consulting firms.

There is less competition for jobs from onshore internationals, as many have gone home (about 300,000).

At the start of last month, the five major consulting firms – Accenture, Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – had more than 500 open job ads on business networking site LinkedIn.

Candidates have more choice and they are being more selective, which is a good thing.

One has to remember though, that plenty of jobs have disappeared.

Hospitality, tourism and CBD retail are comatose.

Job ads are certainly not up in Greater Sydney and Melbourne.

While job ads are up nationally and in SA, if the lockdowns continue in the eastern states, prepare for some serious belt-tightening as distributed GST revenues plummet.

For people who get their rocks off on stats, I’ve included the ANZ July figures here. Much more reliable than Seek.