Online educator job ad listings fall 10% year on year, ECTs 34% and centre directors 17%

The monthly count of online educator, early childhood teacher (ECT) and centre manager job advertisements across Australia has registered another month of year on year falls according to new data released by Jobs and Skills Australia in its Internet Vacancy Index (IVI) series.

 

August 2024 saw 4,190 educator ads posted, 1,784 ECT ads posted and 308 centre manager ads posted with each category showing consecutive falls of 10 per cent, 34 per cent and 17 per cent compared to the same period last year. 

 

Double digit year on year falls across all for job categories is extremely rare and a further signal that supply and demand imbalances across the ECEC workforce continue to normalise as approved providers feel less compelled to post ads to fill vacancies. 

The most notable contraction in job ads across the ECEC sector remains in the ECT segment with overall levels now down 37 per cent from the  peak levels recorded in October of last year. 

 

Across the larger states New South Wales is still posting the most ads and Queensland the least, however the sharpest falls have been recorded in Victoria which is somewhat counterintuitive as the state’s ambitious kinder roll out continues. 

August was also the first month since COVID-19 that witnessed South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT record negative year on year ECT job ad growth suggesting that the slowdown in ECT demand is now fairly uniform across all jurisdictions. 

 

That being said, demand for educators, despite falling year on year remains elevated relative to its the other ECEC job categories and also levels experienced prior to COVID-19.

Educator job ads are 144 per cent higher than they were in January 2020, just prior to the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst the growth in the number of new long day care centres opened in the same period is just 14 per cent. 

 

On a state by state basis, similar to ECTs, Victoria has reported the largest fall in educator job ads with NSW steady and QLD actually reporting a small increase year on year. 

Outside the larger states the key stand out is WA which is still seeing nearly double as many educator ads posted by approved providers now then prior to COVID-19 suggesting demand continues to outstrip supply quite handily across the state. 

 

To access the latest IVI series data click here.