Normally I’d post a happy blog story for Friday but I’m amazed Republic Resumes has any clients at all. Job ads (except for a few sectors) have almost completely collapsed.

I wish I had better news for the 6000 Qantas workers who just lost their jobs, but vacancies have suffered their biggest collapse in history.

New figures reveal huge falls in the number of people working in key industries over the past three months.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed vacancies alone fell by 43 per cent in the three months to May. They are now where they were in 2005.

The 43 per cent fall in vacancies easily eclipsed the previous record drop, of 27 per cent, recorded in the three months to November 1990, during that period’s recession.

The manufacturing sector shed 68,300 jobs over the period, taking the number of workers to 852,800, its lowest level in records going back to 1984.

The bureau’s head of labour statistics, Bjorn Jarvis, said three industries had suffered the biggest falls in vacancies during the period, which coincided with coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.

Across the arts and recreation services sector, vacancies collapsed by an unparalleled 95 per cent and employment fell to its lowest level since 2004. Vacancies fell by 68 per cent across the rental and real estate sector and by 66 per cent for accommodation and food services.

Employment increased 24 per cent in the electricity, gas, water and waste services sector, but there was not an increase in hours worked. The ABS attributed this to a change in working arrangements.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing employment increased 9 per cent, and there were increases in the financial and insurance sector (4 per cent) and public administration and safety industry (3 per cent).

The bureau noted a drop in the number of firms in every industry sector reporting job vacancies.

Just 0.5 per cent of arts and recreation services businesses had a vacancy during the survey period. Across all sectors, only 6.5 per cent of firms had a position vacant. Three months ago, 11 per cent did