Over one-quarter of Australian businesses are struggling to find suitable staff to fill job voids, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed in its June Insights into business conditions and sentiments. ABS Head of Industry Statistics John Shepherd said 74 percent of businesses cited lack of applicants as a reason why they struggled to find staff, followed by job skill mismatch (66 percent) and international border closures (32 percent). This comes as online job advertisement platform Seek says the number of applications per job advertisement has fallen to its lowest level since 2012. Meanwhile, the number of job ads themselves remain at “extraordinarily high” levels. Seek Managing Director Kendra Banks said there is currently a reluctance to apply despite the abundance of opportunities, and with more job choices, candidates were now more selective. At the same time, they are also putting greater importance on job security compared to before. “In addition, …