Australia | Mar 13 2007
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck
The total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet rose by 3.4% in February to a weekly average of 216,621 per week, reports the economics team at ANZ. The solid growth figures follow a more benign 0.1% fall in total
advertisements recorded in January, suggesting little prospect of an easing in labour market conditions throughout Australia.
ANZ reports the total number of advertisements in February was 24.8% higher than 12 months ago.
Looking at the different channels for advertising jobs, the number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers fell by 2.5% in February to an average of 19,768 per week. This follows a 1% decline in January. According to ANZ, Newspaper advertisements are now 1.3% lower than in February 2006.
However, abstracting from month-to-month volatility in the data, ANZ believes trend data show that the decline in newspaper job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers has turned a corner. The bank points out the number of job advertisements has risen over the past five consecutive months, breaking with a long period of trend decline.
Nonetheless, newspaper job advertisements in February 2007 were 9.6% lower than at the most recent peak in November 2004.
The number of internet job advertisements grew by 4.1% in February to an average of 196,853 per week. In trend terms, internet job advertisements are still growing solidly, although annual growth has steadied over the past five months, ANZ notes. The bank believes this may be a sign that this channel for advertising jobs is maturing after several years of exceptionally strong growth.