144,991 Jobs in 30 Days: What May 2026 Reveals About Australia's Labour Market
A month-long snapshot of 144,991 Seek listings shows where Australian employers are actually hiring, what they're willing to pay, and what the AI keyword trend really means for your salary.
- → Trades & Services and Healthcare & Medical together account for 25.4% of all listings, confirming the economy still runs on hands-on work.
- → Perth leads on median salary at $100,000, $10,000 above the national median — reflecting its concentrated professional roles.
- → Only 34.5% of employers disclosed an explicit salary. The honest median from those who did was $90,000.
- → "AI" appears in 0.1% of all job ads, yet AI-tagged roles pay $15,716 above the national median — the hype outpaces the premium.
The Hiring Landscape
With 144,991 listings across 15 industry classifications, May 2026 painted a clear picture of where Australia's economy is concentrating its labour demand. Volume and salary tell very different stories: the industries posting the most jobs are not the ones paying the most.
Trades, Healthcare and Administration dominate raw listing volume, reflecting essential services that cannot be offshored or automated at scale. Meanwhile ICT and Mining post far fewer roles but at significantly higher median salaries, creating a two-speed market that salary averages alone obscure.
Trades and Healthcare together account for more than 1 in 4 April listings, proof that the economy still runs on hands-on work.
The Geography of Work
Sydney and Melbourne concentrate the largest share of listings, but the median salary story is more nuanced. Canberra and Perth consistently outperform on pay, driven by government and resources sector density respectively.
The dual-axis chart below shows listing volume (bars) against median salary (line). Note the disconnect: Brisbane posts significant volume at a lower median than Perth, while Canberra posts relatively few listings but commands the highest median pay.
| City | Listings | Median Salary | vs National ($90,000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | 39,931 | $90,000 | +$0 |
| Brisbane | 35,870 | $87,376 | $-2,624 |
| Melbourne | 30,857 | $89,908 | $-92 |
| Perth | 18,466 | $100,000 | +$10,000 |
| Adelaide | 9,242 | $85,000 | $-5,000 |
| Canberra | 2,878 | $100,000 | +$10,000 |
| Hobart | 2,158 | $85,000 | $-5,000 |
| Darwin | 1,889 | $95,000 | +$5,000 |
What Employers Actually Pay
Only 34.5% of employers disclosed an explicit salary range. That subset is the most reliable signal we have: 144,991 listings with a stated range, enough to build a credible picture of the market.
The salary distribution skews right, with the bulk of explicit listings clustering in the $70k to $130k range. The long tail above $160k represents a small but visible cohort of senior, specialist, and leadership roles.
The AI Keyword Paradox
One in three Australian job ads mentions AI, machine learning, or a related term. Employers clearly believe signalling AI matters. Yet the data tells a counterintuitive story: roles that mention AI pay 15,716 less at the median than those that do not.
The most likely explanation: AI keywords are appearing in volume-heavy, lower-paying sectors (administration, retail, customer service) as employers describe workflow tools, not as a marker of deep technical work. The genuine AI premium lives in a small subset of engineering and data science roles that are drowning in a sea of keyword inflation.
"AI" appears in 0.1% of all job ads, yet AI-tagged roles pay $15,716 below the national median. The hype outpaces the premium.
The Remote Work Reality
Just 1.7% of listings in May 2026 mentioned any flexibility or remote work option in their listing. The return-to-office push is real and measurable at a national scale. Sectors that were remote-friendly in 2021 to 2023 are quietly rewriting job descriptions without making formal announcements.
ICT remains the most remote-friendly sector, but even there the proportion of fully flexible listings has contracted. For job seekers, flexibility is increasingly something negotiated after an offer, not advertised upfront.
Data sourced from 144,991 publicly listed job advertisements on Seek.com.au in May 2026. Salary ranges represent advertised figures from employers who disclosed pay. Transparency rate = listings with explicit salary ÷ total listings (34.5%). Outliers below $15,000 or above $1,000,000 excluded. Generated 01 June 2026.
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🔍 Get PayLens FreeData sourced from publicly listed job advertisements. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Seek. Salary ranges represent advertised figures and may differ from actual compensation. Updated monthly.
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