The September 2026 edition of the Jobs and Skills Australia occupation shortage report has landed, and the headline reads well. The national fill rate rose 2.0 percentage points to 68.1%. If you run recruitment or workforce planning, your board may already be asking why your hardest roles are still open when the report says shortages are easing. The answer sits under the average. Here is how to read the report by skill level and region, and turn it into a hiring plan that holds up.
The headline is easing, your hardest roles are not
A national fill rate of 68.1% sounds like relief. It measures the share of advertised vacancies that employers managed to fill. Up 2.0 percentage points on the previous read, it points to a labour market that is loosening at the whole-of-country level. That is real, and worth noting. The problem is what the single number hides. Skill Level 3 roles, the trades and technical occupations, are still filling at about 53.9%. Nearly half of those vacancies go unfilled. If your open roles cluster there, the headline is describing someone else's year, not yours.
What the fill rate actually measures
The fill rate is the share of vacancies that were filled, not a count of how many people applied. A role can draw a stack of applications and still be recorded as unfilled if none of the applicants were suitable. Jobs and Skills Australia weighs suitability, not just volume. That distinction matters when you plan. A high applicant count can sit next to a low fill rate, which tells you the shortage is about skills and fit, not about reach. An average across every occupation, region and skill level blurs all of that into one comfortable figure. The value is in the breakdown, not the top line.
