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These are the 5 top-paid jobs in Australia right now as salaries grow and job vacancies dwindle

  • Salaries in Australia have grown steadily in the last 12 months, seeing a 3.5% uptick in advertised figures nationally, according to online jobs site Seek.

  • Western Australia was the biggest winner over the period, as a shortage of qualified candidates see mining companies compete for talent, while South Australian salaries grew the least.

  • The five professions with the highest average advertisied salaries were architects ($142,196), managers in the resources ($139,782) engineering ($136,564) and IT (135,480) sectors, followed by accountants ($130,302).

  • Despite the strong salary growth, there were 6.5% less job ads than last year.


If you're looking for a job right now, there's good news and there's bad news.

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First, the bad news — your job hunt could be a lot tougher than it was 12 months ago, given there are 6.5% fewer jobs advertised today, according to the latest analysis by Australian job site Seek.

READ MORE: Australian jobs ads are falling at the fastest pace in over 5 years

That's on the back of a large slowdown in the housing and construction sectors.

If you do get your foot in the door, however, you could be looking at a much better pay packet.

That's because, despite dwindling vacancies, advertised Australian salaries are 3.5% higher than they were 12 months ago across the country. If you're in Western Australia however, salaries are looking even better, increasing by 5.3% statewide and even more so in some regions.

“WA, SA and Queensland regions are heavily populated with mining towns that have specifically contributed to the growth in salary. We have seen a consistent rise in salary across the resources industry, with mining contributing to both salary and job growth over the past three and a half years," Seek Australia and New Zealand managing director Kendra Banks said in the report, provided to Business Insider Australia.

If you're not in mining, however, don't despair — it's not even the highest earner in the country at the moment. That honour goes to architects who can expect $142,196 on average for their labour.

Architects are followed by management roles in the resources sector, who on average command $139,782, compared to third-placed engineering ($136,564) and IT managers (135,480). Accountants round out the list earning $130,302.

If you find yourself in another line of work, this is what you can expect to be offered on average.

The pay discrepancy between men and women, according to Banks, is partly due to a lack of confidence when applying for more senior positions.

"One of the reasons we feel that this gap exists in roles applied for on Seek is that women tend to deter from roles which detail a long skill set requirement," she said.

If not satisfied with their current remuneration, workers of all stripes should take it up with their boss, Banks said.

"I would definitely encourage candidates to take the reins and approach these challenging conversations with greater confidence.”