If news of tech layoffs has been bumming you out, perhaps this will cheer you up: job vacancies are up in the hospitality and retail spaces after a brief lull in H2 FY22. And job ads website Seek (ASX: SEK) has moved its investments around to commit itself to job seekers and hunters alone. 

Job vacancies in Australia amount to over 444k. It’s not as high as before, but it appears that this number is growing. In H1 FY23, Seek reported a revenue increase of 21% to $626.7 million. Its earnings increased by 13%, and profits were up by 9%. 

While the site’s popularity grew a bit in Australia and New Zealand, it grew significantly in Asia. Seek ANZ revenue increased 19%, and EBITDA was up 8%. In SEEK Asia, revenue increased 25% and earnings rose by 78%.

SEEK CEO and Managing Director Ian Narev said, “Across our Asia Pacific markets, demand for labour remained high during H1 23, which led to increased job ad volumes. In the second quarter, volumes reduced moderately across all markets, and had the usual seasonal variation. Yield increased through adoption of depth products, particularly in Asian markets.”

The Company decided to deconsolidate the SEEK Growth Fund to focus on its growing job ads segment. It also discontinued its online education service and Sidekicker (its temporary staffing service), up to the point of deconsolidation. Profit across its discontinued operations had decreased 69% due to lower profits from OES as the business invests for growth. 

In Asia, a new budget-based contract structure based on the Company’s ANZ approach was implemented progressively across six markets. This was a major milestone for the business. It was also a direct result of Seek’s Platform Unification program. The Company also invested in some strategic areas, like launching its seekMAX platform, an online learning platform being piloted in Indonesia. 

Narev added, “Platform Unification is progressing to plan and will be completed by the end of FY24. We reached a number of key milestones, including the migration of all hirer and candidate data from the SEEK Asia platform to the SEEK ANZ platform. We performed extensive scalability testing to ensure the platform can support increased data and traffic.”

Globally, its results were mixed in Latin America. Revenue grew in Chicago, but in Brazil, it was impacted by the transition to the new candidate business model. In China, Zhaopin has been impacted by severe COVID restrictions as revenue declined by 11%.

Seek’s portfolio value increased 38% to $2,254 million. Plus, in December 2022, it established a $290 million debt facility. 

SEEK’s CFO Kate Koch shared, “We are pleased to declare a dividend of 24 cents per share whilst investing in key strategic initiatives, including Platform Unification. This is testament to SEEK’s ability to generate strong cash flows. Our balance sheet is well placed to support our long-term growth agenda.”

In FY23, the Company expects to garner revenue of about $1.26 billion and earnings of $560 million, with its profit reaching $250 million. Though this is on the lower end of its previously reported forecast, it’s still where Seek wants it to be.