Internet job vacancies in the Hunter have hit a new record high as unemployment continues to trend lower.
The National Skills Commission's Internet Vacancy Index shows the three-month moving average of Hunter jobs advertised online reached 6545 in July, the most on record.
The moving average is up 86 per cent from 3507 in July 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The numbers continue to confirm anecdotal evidence from Hunter employers that they are struggling to find staff to fill vacancies.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates the Newcastle jobless rate was 2.6 per cent in July.
The city's 12-month moving average unemployment rate was 4.1 per cent, down from 4.2 per cent in June and half the pandemic high of 8.2 per cent in January 2021.
The bureau says its moving averages smooth out the volatility of the labour market survey and can be a more accurate measure than its month-by-month data.
The moving average of people in work across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie was 197,000 in July, the highest since April 2020.
The number of people in work has continued to grow each month since March 2021.
The workforce participation rate moving average, a measure of people in work or looking for it, sits at a two-year high of 65.4 per cent.
In the rest of the Hunter, the jobless rate moving average was also 4.1 per cent, down more than one percentage point since 2019 due largely to a much-reduced participation rate of 58.9 per cent.
The number of people in work was down 8000 compared with 2019.
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