The company said the year-on-year rise was probably caused by the easing of restrictions, state border re-openings and the ability to travel, all of which would boost business confidence.

SEEK ANZ managing director Kendra Banks said: "We have continued to see positive, national month-on-month job ad growth since the end of April 2020. We are very pleased to report 1.0% more new job ads were posted on seek.com.au in November 2020 than in November 2019.

“After a challenging 2020 for hirers and job seekers, this is a more positive note in which to end the year. We can have some confidence the easing of restrictions nationally, together with the re-opening of businesses and industries, is driving a return towards pre-COVID levels.

"As businesses prepare for the holiday period ahead of a COVID-normal summer, the advertising which would typically happen in September and October happened later.

"With the uncertainty that existed around travel easing, businesses are now acting on their hiring needs, including many small businesses re-hiring team members.“

SEEK said some states and industries were finding it more difficult to fill vacant jobs given that the increase in ads would reduce the availability of candidates and also offer job-seekers more choice.

Customer-facing roles were seeing less applicants, sometimes as much as 30% less compared to 2019, the ad site said.

Said Banks: "One trend we’re noticing is job-seekers being more selective when choosing which roles to apply for.

"While the number of job seekers viewing ads is the same as this time last year, the number who go on to apply is 15% lower year-on-year.

“This behaviour is in contrast to what we saw throughout 2020, where applications per ad were typically higher than usual.

"So, it is increasingly becoming more of a job seekers’ market, particularly in Western Australia and Queensland, and in industries like trades and services, manufacturing, transport and logistics, hospitality and tourism and retail.”

As to the states, SEEK said Victoria had now joined NSW and the ACT in approaching new job ad levels close to pre-COVID times.

Banks added: "Looking at the national picture, we have continued to see strong month-on-month growth across all states and territories except in Western Australia, which saw a very small decline in November. However, the state is still up considerably on this time last year. WA’s 1.0% decline can likely be attributed to the seasonal winding down of the year.

“In South Australia, which experienced a brief reintroduction of restrictions, the impact on job ads was immediate with a 26-percentage point drop in the corresponding week. Despite this, South Australia rebounded well and finished the month with a 2.5% increase in job ads, and a healthy 17.6% higher than the same time last year.

“For the first time since COVID restrictions were imposed, Victoria is no longer the state with the biggest percentage difference of new job ads compared to 12 months ago.

"After three consecutive months of double-digit growth, including 17.3% in September, 20.7% in October and now 20.2% in November, Victoria has moved beyond ACT and New South Wales in year-on-year job ad growth.

"This marks a significant turnaround for the state, which was severely impacted during this year’s COVID restrictions and lockdown.”