Australia’s labour market showed signs of easing pressure in June quarter 2025, with more job vacancies being filled across the country.
The national vacancy fill rate rose by nearly a full percentage point to 70.6%, signalling that employers are having greater success in securing workers. Both metropolitan and regional areas recorded improvements, with fill rates at 72.2% and 65.8% respectively, narrowing the long-standing gap between city and country.
A new measure introduced in this quarter’s Occupation Shortage Report, the Mismatch Index (MI), sheds fresh light on how evenly applicants and vacancies are distributed across occupations. The 2024–25 MI shows that about 30% of jobseekers would need to change the type of roles they apply for to achieve a balanced labour market. This is a modest improvement from the 2023–24 peak of 33%.
Much of the imbalance continues to stem from the Professionals group, which contributed more than one-third of the MI. Analysis suggests that shifting applicant focus between similar skill levels for example, from Clerical and Administrative work to Community and Personal Service roles, could help reduce the mismatch in the labour market.
While overall fill rates are climbing, some areas remain tight. At Skill Level 3 (largely technicians and trades workers), the fill rate is still only 55.1%, well below the 70% seen in other groups.
Read more in the full report.
