The rise was much bigger when looked at year-on-year, with a 56.7% rise; compared to September 2019, ads were up by 24.7%.

The SEEK data showed that NSW had the biggest month-on-month growth at 20.6%, as the state announced its intentions to open up and vaccination rates showed that the first stage of lifting the lockdown would take place in October.

The situation in Victoria was exactly the opposite, with a month-on-month decline of 2.6%. The state has just crossed the 60% vaccination mark for adults above 16 and is expected to reach the 70% mark before the end of October.

SEEK ANZ managing director Kendra Banks commented: "A particularly strong result in New South Wales has led to a month-on-month increase of 6.0% in national job ads.

National SEEK online job ad percentage change by state (September 2021 vs August 2021).

"The COVID-19 roadmap announcements in New South Wales and Victoria have encouraged businesses to move ahead with rehiring and preparing for the summer holiday period.

"In New South Wales, job ads increased by more than 20%, with roles in hospitality and tourism jumping by 130% month-on-month.

"Factors contributing to this growth include replacing roles which were lost, preparing for the end of restrictions, and getting ready for the summer holiday period."

The SEEK data showed that applications per ad levels remained low despite there being about 34 million visits in September, more or less the regular number.

"Many hirers are still finding it difficult to recruit. Month-on-month applications per job ad are down slightly by 0.8% nationally and remain significantly below pre-pandemic levels, down by 34.9% when comparing September 2021 to September 2019," added Banks.

"Australians continue to be cautious when considering their next career move."

National, state and territory job ad growth/decline comparing September 2021 to: i) August 2021 (m/m); ii) September 2020 (y/y) and; iii) September 2019.

She said Victoria was expected to show an upturn in the number of online job ads after lockdown restrictions eased.

"Despite dropping slightly last month, Victoria is still showing over 10% more ads than two years ago," Banks said.

"Compared to September 2019, before the pandemic, there is quite an increase in roles across most states, with the majority of the states and territories demonstrating growth between 44.8% in Queensland up to 76.1% in Tasmania. The exception is the ACT which has 6.7% fewer roles."