Internet job vacancy postings in the Northern Territory declined by more than a third in April against the same period last year, compared to an almost 50 per cent decrease across Australia, according to the latest Commonwealth Department of Education, Skills, and Employment’s Internet Vacancy Report.

The Territory had the second smallest monthly decrease of all jurisdictions at 9.6 per cent, down to 1135 internet advertised positions, with the change ranging from a 19.5 per cent decline in Victoria to a decrease of 8.7 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory, the report stated.

The decrease in the NT for April 2020 against 2019 was 33.4 per cent, while for Australia it was a 46.1 per cent drop.

The largest decreases in the April job postings in the NT were in clerical and administrative work, which were down by 11.7 per cent and sales jobs dropped by 8.9 per cent.

The most affected NT sector in the annual data was sales which dropped by 51.1 per cent and the labor sector which was down 38.2 per cent.

The data does come with a warning that caution was advised when using monthly data for the Territory, which is often derived from small samples and highly volatile.

Meanwhile, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed more than 3700 Territorians lost their jobs in April, causing the NT to plunge to its highest unemployment rate since 2007, with more expected by the end of June.

NT started implementing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions mid-March, prompting many businesses to close in, what will be one of the biggest economic shocks in the last 100 years.

The economy was further impacted when the NT largely closed its borders on March 24.

The Gunner Government had earlier said that the Territory’s ability to contain the coronavirus better than other states could mean the NT was better placed to rebound quicker that other jurisdictions.

However Darwin Major Business Group head Ian Kew disputed this and suggested an economic recovery commission be struck to provide practical advice to the Gunner Government to get through the bleak economic future, which he estimated would take two years.

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