Australia's job ads rose 0.5% month on month in August, marking the first increase in more than a year and offering early signs of stabilization in the labor market, although they remained 4.5% below the level a year earlier, online employment marketplace Seek said on Thursday.

Applications per job ad rose 0.4% in August and 1.7% year on year, reaching peak levels and highlighting continued strong competition among jobseekers.

Victoria recorded the strongest monthly increase in job advertisements at 1.1%, followed by Tasmania and New South Wales, while Western Australia was the only state to record annual growth, rising 1.8% year on year.

Hospitality and tourism recorded the strongest monthly growth at 3.6%, while engineering roles saw the most consistent year-on-year growth at over 14%, followed by the mining, resources and energy, and construction sectors.

Demand for artificial intelligence-related skills continued to rise, featuring in 2.3% of Australian job ads and 3% of New South Wales ads, with agentic AI emerging as one of the fastest-growing skill areas, per the report.