SEEK, one of the largest job boards in Asia Pacific, has reported heightened labour demand in the Australian healthcare and medical industry.

Based on jobs advertised on its own site, demand increased 14% last month, as compared to March 2014.

All Australian states, except South Australia, saw growth in new job ads for this sector outpace job ad growth in all other industries.

In Western Australia, healthcare and medical job ads were up 42% year-on-year. According to SEEK, this significant spike comes off the back of increased investment by the state and national governments to cope with a growing population spurred by the mining boom. 

In partnership with the national government and other partners, the Government of Western Australia is investing more than A$7bn (£3.6bn) over a 10-year period to build new hospitals and health centres, and improve existing facilities. 

Broadly, the increased demand was driven by an increased need for nurses, particularly in aged care.

New job ads for more specific nursing roles including nurse facilitators, ICU [intensive care unit] nurses, paediatric nurses and psychiatric nurses, all experienced growth of more than 40% year-on-year to March 2015.

SEEK’s data showed the easiest jobs to fill in the industry were chiropractic roles, medical administrators and dentists. The hardest to fill roles, based on number of applications per job, were in midwifery, paediatric nursing and nurse educator roles. 

Overall, across all sectors and locations, new job ads were up 6.7% year-on-year in March.

Strong demand was also seen in property-related sectors such as architecture and construction, and the farming sector. Labour demand in the mining and energy industries was down.