CANBERRA, Nov. 4 — About two-thirds of Australian businesses do not expect artificial intelligence (AI) to impact their job vacancies over the next 12 months, official data showed on Wednesday.
About 8 percent of businesses expect AI to reduce job vacancies, while 1 percent anticipates an increase, Sean Crick, head of labor statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), said in a statement.
The data showed that AI had had a limited impact on job vacancies to date, with about 82 percent of businesses reporting no impact in August.
Four percent of businesses said AI had reduced the number of job vacancies in August, while less than 1 percent reported an increase in vacancies in their business, according to the ABS.
The impact varied across industries. Information media and telecommunications had the highest proportion of businesses reporting a decrease in vacancies due to AI, at 16 percent, followed by wholesale trade at 8 percent and manufacturing at 6 percent, Crick said.
Meanwhile, electricity, gas, water and waste services recorded the highest proportion of businesses reporting an increase in vacancies due to AI, at 10 percent, followed by public administration and safety at 4 percent and health care and social assistance at 2 percent, the agency said.
The ABS said the estimates relate only to the impact of AI on job vacancies and do not reflect its impact on existing jobs.
Total job vacancies in Australia stood at 325,000 in August 2026, down 0.9 percent from May. The number was 31.2 percent below its peak in May 2022, it said. (Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
