Employment opportunities for science, technology and engineering professionals continue to lead the Australian job market, a new report has found.

Job-seeking site, Seek, has released its Employment Report for 2018, detailing the industries which have seen growth and decline in job ads from January 2017 to January 2018. .

Engineering and Science & Technology placed third and fourth respectively with 25% and 22% growth.

This was compared to a 14.7% increase in overall job ads on Seek across Australia in the last 12 months.

Managing Director of Seek ANZ, Kendra Banks, said increased job postings in these sectors indicated a skills shortage.

"We’re seeing a strong national demand for STEM skills – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – which reflects a global talent shortage,” she said.

“This ’talent shortage’ has been identified by Australian CEOs as one of their top business risk areas, but it also creates huge competitive job opportunities for Australians with engineering and IT skills."

Banks’ statement comes after Seek submitted a report to the Senate earlier this year outlining Australia’s ‘War for Talent’, and the need for businesses to invest in workers to ensure they are able to adapt to new technologies.

Information & Communication Technology professionals also experienced strong growth of 17%, further reflecting the demand highly-skilled professionals in Australia.

New job ads growth and decline by sector. Source: Seek

Topping the list were mining jobs, which saw a 54% increase in new jobs ads, followed by trades and services roles which increased 31%.

Advertising, arts and media was the only sector to experience a decline in advertised position, having 8% less jobs posted in the past year.

The report also revealed the states where tech professionals were the most in demand.

Victoria led the way when it came to science and tech jobs, recording 30% job growth, followed by Queensland (24%) and NSW (21%).

In engineering positions, Western Australia recorded a 56% increase, making it the most in demand role in the state.

In terms of overall job growth, Tasmania led the way, with a 26.4% increase, ahead of South Australia, which saw 22.8% growth.

ACT had the lowest growth in the country, with just 10.6% over the past 12 months.