Short answer: The hidden job market is the jobs filled through people rather than public ads: word of mouth, recruiters' networks and posts, and job seekers getting in touch directly. Nobody knows how big it is in Australia. But in 2025, a quarter of recruiting employers used word of mouth, and most employers approached directly by a job seeker hired one of them.
Key points
- No one has counted unadvertised jobs. The "60–80% of jobs are never advertised" figure that appears on many career sites has no primary source we could find.
- What we do know: in 2025, 58% of Australian employers who recruited used online job boards, 25% word of mouth, 19% social media, 13% recruitment agencies and 12% were approached directly by job seekers (Jobs and Skills Australia).
- Informal methods work. Word of mouth and direct approaches have "relatively high success rates", in Jobs and Skills Australia's words.
- For professional jobs, the hidden market is mostly recruiters. Most professional jobs are advertised, but agencies and recruiters' own posts carry a lot of them.
- Use both. Keep applying on the boards, and add the people: recruiters in your field, your network, and direct approaches.
What is the hidden job market?
The hidden job market is the jobs that are filled without a public job ad, or that are filled through a person even when an ad exists. That covers:
- jobs filled by word of mouth: someone on the team recommends a person they know;
- jobs recruiters fill from their own networks, or share only in their own LinkedIn posts;
- jobs created or filled when a job seeker approaches the employer directly, sometimes before anyone thought to advertise.
It isn't a secret system. It's just that a lot of hiring happens through people talking to each other, and a job board only shows you part of it.
What percentage of jobs aren't advertised in Australia?
The honest answer: nobody knows. You'll see "60%", "70%" or "80%" quoted on careers sites and in recruiters' posts. We looked for a primary source for any of these figures and couldn't find one: no survey, no dataset, no method.
What exists is better than a made-up number. Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), the Australian Government's jobs and skills agency, asks around 1,000 employers a month how they recruited in its Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey (REOS). It also publishes a Total New Vacancies estimate that combines online job ad counts with that survey, specifically to include "those filled through informal channels such as word of mouth, signs in shop windows, and social media groups". Its May 2026 estimate was 1,353,000 new vacancies in the quarter. JSA notes only that "in some occupations and regions, over half of job vacancies are advertised online" (Jobs and Skills Australia, Total New Vacancies, August 2026).
In other words, the government thinks online ads miss enough hiring that it built a separate measure to count it. It just doesn't put a single national percentage on it, and neither should anyone else.
How do Australian employers actually hire?
Here's what employers told JSA about their most recent recruitment in 2025. Employers could use more than one method.
| Recruitment method | Share of recruiting employers who used it, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Online job boards | 58% (up from 46% in 2016) |
| Word of mouth or poaching | 25% |
| Social media | 19% (up from 6% in 2016) |
| Recruitment agency or government employment service | 13% |
| Directly approached by a job seeker | 12% |
| Company website | 10% |
| Internal recruitment | 6% |
| Sign in the window | 3% |
| Newspaper | 2% |
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, REOS spotlight, February 2026.
Two more findings matter for job seekers:
- Most employers use just one method. In 2025, 63% of employers used only one way to recruit. If that one way isn't a job board, the job may never reach SEEK.
- Boards often come second. Around 31% of employers who used job boards as part of a mix had tried other methods first. Even when a job board led to the hire, 25% of those employers had first tried something else. By the time a job is advertised, the employer may already have asked around.
Which methods actually lead to a hire?
JSA also asked employers who filled at least one vacancy which method the person they hired came through. It calls the gap between "used" and "led to a hire" the success rate.
| Method | Used (employers who filled a vacancy) | Led to a hire | Success rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online job boards | 52% | 40% | Above average |
| Word of mouth or poaching | 29% | 24% | High |
| Directly approached by a job seeker | 17% | 16% | High |
| Social media | 17% | 7% | Low |
| Recruitment agency | 11% | 8% | Average |
| Company website | 10% | 7% | Average |
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, REOS spotlight, February 2026.
The plain reading: job boards are still the biggest single route to a job, so keep using them. But when an employer heard from someone directly, or through someone they knew, it usually ended in a hire. JSA's summary: "Informal recruitment methods remain highly effective, with word of mouth and direct approaches by job seekers achieving relatively high success rates across occupations and regions."
JSA adds a fair caveat. Informal methods may look so successful partly because employers only record them when they work: nobody "uses" a direct approach until a good person turns up. That's still good news for you. It means a well-timed message can create an opening that wasn't on anyone's list.
Does the hidden job market exist for professional jobs?
Yes, but it's a different shape. Be wary of advice that treats a café job and a senior analyst job the same way.
JSA found that managers and most professional jobs rely heavily on online job boards, with relatively low use of word of mouth or social media. Direct approaches by job seekers are most common for lower-skilled, often casual work. So for most white-collar jobs, an ad probably exists somewhere.
The hidden part for professionals is mostly recruiters:
- Agencies carry hard-to-fill professional jobs. Almost a quarter (24%) of professionals recruited for hard-to-fill jobs in 2025 were hired through recruitment agencies (JSA). Agency recruiters often work on several similar jobs at once, so being known to one can lead to more than one opening.
- Recruiters post jobs on LinkedIn. Social media use by employers tripled from 6% in 2016 to 19% in 2025 (JSA). On LinkedIn, a lot of that is recruiters and hiring managers writing "I'm hiring" posts, which you only see if you follow the right people. Those jobs can be filled from the replies before a listing gets much attention.
- The advertised pile is crowded. Advertised jobs in skilled occupations drew 21.5 applicants each on average in the March quarter of 2026, and employers judged 5.2 of them suitable (JSA, Occupation Shortage Report, June 2026). Even when a job is advertised, getting to a person helps you stand out from the rest of the list.
For professionals, then, the hidden job market is less about secret jobs and more about who you know, and who knows you, when a job comes up.
How do you find jobs that aren't advertised?
- Find the specialist recruiters in your field and city. Search LinkedIn for "[your field] recruiter [city]" and look at who posts jobs like yours. Follow five to ten of them and turn on notifications for the most active ones.
- Search LinkedIn posts, not just LinkedIn Jobs. Search for your job title plus "hiring" and sort by latest. Recruiters and managers often post a job days before it becomes a listing, or instead of one.
- Tell your network specifically. Not "I'm looking for work", but "I'm looking for a senior BA job in insurance in Melbourne, contract or permanent". Word of mouth was used by a quarter of recruiting employers in 2025 (JSA). People can only refer you for something they know you want.
- Approach employers directly. Pick companies where you'd fit, find the manager of the team or the in-house recruiter, and send a short note: what you do, why them, and whether they'd be open to a chat. Our guide on how to find the hiring manager covers finding the person.
- Talk to recruiters before you need them. A short "I'm open to [type of job] in [city]" message to a recruiter in your field means you're on their list when the next job lands. What to message a recruiter has templates, including one for keeping in touch.
- Keep applying on the boards for jobs you fit. Then message the person behind each one. The two approaches work best together.
Myths about the hidden job market
| You'll hear | What the data says |
|---|---|
| "80% of jobs are never advertised" | No primary source. JSA's data shows a mix: 58% of recruiting employers used job boards in 2025, and many used other methods instead or as well |
| "Job boards don't work" | Online job boards led to a hire for 40% of employers who filled a vacancy in 2025, more than any other method (JSA) |
| "It's all about who you know" | Partly. Word of mouth led to a hire for 24% of employers who filled a vacancy (JSA). But direct approaches by job seekers led to a hire for 16% too |
| "Employers don't want to hear from you" | Most employers who were approached directly by a job seeker hired one of them (JSA, 2025). That's most common for lower-skilled jobs, but it shows people are open to it |
How Sidedoor helps
Sidedoor is built for the recruiter side of the hidden job market. Tell it the job you want and where. Your search finds the recruiters who specialise in your field, checks their LinkedIn posts every day, and combines them with job listings into one feed of jobs that fit you, including jobs that only appear in recruiters' posts. Jobs from recruiters' posts show who posted them, so you know who to talk to. For a job you found somewhere else, Job by link suggests the likely hiring managers and in-house recruiters (3 credits).
Your search learns from you: mark a job "Not for me" and say why, or show it a job you wanted. It doesn't need your LinkedIn login and never applies or messages anyone for you. Searches run from a pack, and beta testers get a free month in Australia and New Zealand.
If you're applying for jobs you fit and hearing nothing, read why am I not getting interviews for jobs I'm qualified for. And if you're weighing up paying LinkedIn to reach people, see is LinkedIn Premium worth it for job seekers in Australia.