Australian Job Prospects So-So

Advertised Job Highlights From ANZ Survey

• Newspaper job ads averaged 8,800 per week in October, down from 13,294 12 months ago.
• Internet job ads averaged 124,909 per week, down from about 218,280 12 months ago.
• The total average number of weekly job ads in October was 133,709, down from 231,574 a year ago.
• Two years ago, total weekly jobs ads averaged 256,975.
• Job ad levels have been stable for seven months, indicating that businesses may no longer be cutting back hiring intentions as earlier in the year.

Commenting on the latest figures, ANZ Head of Australian Economics Warren Hogan, said:

“After two months of growth, job advertisements fell by 1.7% in October. As an indicator of underlying economic conditions, these results highlight that the recovery of the Australian economy is still vulnerable to set backs. Indeed, job advertising in newspapers remains less than half of the recent cyclical peak.

“So far in this downturn, the Australian labour market has been characterised by cuts to hours that have meant fewer cuts to employment, and resulted in rising underemployment rather than rising unemployment.

“In the near term, we do not expect to see much improvement in the official labour market statistics. Trends in job advertising tend to lead actual employment outcomes by around six to nine months. As such, we expect broadly flat employment growth over the course of the summer with a further small increase in the national unemployment rate to just above 6.5% in mid-2010.”