Australia’s leading employment marketplace SEEK has suffered a sharp investor backlash after reporting a $307 million loss for the 2026 financial year and warning that job advertising volumes are expected to fall further.

As per AFR, SEEK shares plunged as much as 16 per cent during trading on Wednesday before closing 14.2 per cent lower, wiping about $850 million from the company’s market value.

The result marked a dramatic turnaround from the $245 million profit recorded in the previous financial year.

However, as per reports, the headline loss was largely driven by significant write-downs rather than a collapse in the underlying business.

SEEK wrote down the value of its investment in Chinese employment platform Zhaopin and its SEEK Growth Fund by hundreds of millions of dollars. The Growth Fund write-down was about $201 million, while the Zhaopin impairment was previously announced at more than $350 million.

Excluding the major write-downs and other adjustments, SEEK reported an adjusted profit of about $199 million.

Revenue increased 10 per cent to about $1.2 billion, while earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation rose 15 per cent to $530 million.

The company declared a final dividend of 25 cents a share, taking the full-year dividend to 52 cents, an increase of 13 per cent.

As per AFR, the bigger concern for investors was SEEK’s outlook for the employment market.

Job advertisement volumes across Australia and New Zealand fell about 1 per cent during 2026, and SEEK expects volumes to decline by a “mid-single digit” percentage in the year ahead.

According to AFR, Chief executive Ian Narev said that every 1 per cent movement in job advertisement volumes translated into about $9 million in revenue.

“There’s a sort of uncertainty on monetary policy and inflation and interest rates,” Narev told investors.

“There’s still a bit of wage price inflation. There’s government slowing its employment, and there’s all the geopolitical uncertainty.”

“All of those things are weighing on the labour market, undoubtedly, and on the volume.”

SEEK forecast revenue of between $1.21 billion and $1.28 billion for the 2027 financial year and EBITDA of between $530 million and $580 million.

The outlook fell short of some market expectations and contributed to the sharp share-price sell-off.

As per AFR, SEEK is also facing questions about its $2 billion Growth Fund, which holds investments in workplace and learning technology companies including Employment Hero, Go1, HireUp, Sonder and HiBob.

SEEK owns almost 84 per cent of the fund.

The fund’s value fell from about $2.3 billion to $2 billion over the past year amid concerns about artificial intelligence disrupting software-as-a-service businesses.

SEEK also paid the fund $18.3 million in management fees and a $9.5 million performance fee during the year, attracting scrutiny from some investors.

Narev defended the payments, saying the fees were competitive and that the performance fee related specifically to the fund’s success with JobAdder.

He also indicated shareholders could receive substantial cash from the planned sale of more than $1 billion of Growth Fund investments.

“We would expect the vast majority of capital realised to be returned,” Narev said.

The company is nevertheless preparing for a difficult employment environment, with interest rates, inflation, geopolitical uncertainty and the potential impact of AI all weighing on hiring activity.

Despite Wednesday’s market rout, Narev pointed to the underlying resilience of the business, noting that EBITDA was still expected to grow in the coming financial year.

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