How do Australians find work? The answer is not always online. Jobs and Skills Australia’s new Total New Vacancies (TNV) series estimates there were 1,272,000 new job vacancies during the February 2026 quarter, an increase of 2.0% (around 24,300 vacancies) over the year.
While online job ads capture a large share of recruitment activity, they do not tell the full story. Hiring practices vary across regions, industries and business sizes and often include informal methods such as word of mouth or social media groups. This complexity can make it harder to understand where job opportunities exist.
The TNV series addresses this gap by estimating total new vacancies each quarter, going beyond online job advertisements to capture a wider range of hiring activity. It combines data from the Internet Vacancy Index (IVI), a measure of online job ads, with insights from the Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS), which tracks how employers recruit.
TNV provides a more complete picture of labour demand across Australia, accounting for jobs that are never advertised online. This is important for regional areas and occupations where informal recruitment is more common.
A clearer view of how recruitment works in practice supports workforce planning and policy decisions. As hiring methods continue to evolve, the TNV series helps policymakers, industry and communities assess what is happening across the labour market.
If you have any questions, please email JSA-Nowcasting@jobsandskills.gov.au
