Jobs website Seek has made a record profit but its chief executive warns its business will go backwards unless the economy improves.

A weakening job market is bad news for the company, as the number of job ads declines.

Australia’s unemployment rate is 5.7 per cent and is expected to rise.

Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat said the company had so far defied a weakening economy, growing its underlying full year profit by eight per cent to $141.1 million in the 2012/13 financial year.

The company’s net profit more than doubled to $300 million due to accounting benefits from its acquisition of Chinese jobs website Zhaopin.

Seek shares were up 35 cents, or 3.7 per cent, at $9.72 at 1527 AEST.

But Mr Bassat said there had been a gentle decline in ad volumes in the first six weeks of the current financial year.

But that had been offset by strong growth in Seek’s education and overseas job website interests, including Zhaopin, which is also part-owned by James Packer.

“Regardless of the economy, we expect the overall group to grow significantly over the course of the year,” Mr Bassat told AAP.

“If the economy remains as it is in Australia, we’ll see education and international grow and employment go moderately backwards.

“If the economy improves all three of them could grow.”

The election of a majority government could provide a boost to economic confidence, he said.