Total job vacancies in Australia in seasonally adjusted terms in August reached 325,000, recording a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 0.9% and a year-on-year decline of 1.3%, according to a report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday.

The fall was driven by the private sector, particularly in business goods and services, offset by increases in customer-facing roles, including in retail trade, said Sean Crick, ABS head of labor statistics.

The current level of job vacancies is 31.2% lower than the series peak in May 2022.

Private sector vacancies were 286,300, a decrease of 2% from May, while public sector vacancies were 38,700, an increase of 7.8%.

Private sector vacancies experienced a 1.5% decline compared with the same period last year.