Australia | Oct 08 2007
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck
Economists at ANZ Bank believe demand for labour in Australia may be “steadying”, though still growing. They have drawn this conclusion from their latest survey into job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet.
The number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet in Australa fell by 0.4% in September to an average of 247,853 per week, the economists report.
It is their view that the September data are simply a continuation of the consolidation in job advertisements that began in June this year. This consolidation set in following a robust 10.3% rise in job ads in May.
The total number of advertisements in September was 33.1% higher than 12 months ago.
Looking at the different channels for advertising jobs, the number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers declined by 0.7% in September to an average of 20,115 per week. ANZ points out this decline follows a 1.5% increase in August. Newspaper advertisements are still 1.8% higher than in September 2006, the economists point out.
They report the fall in newspaper job advertisements in August was driven by declines in South Australia (-5.0%, reversing August’s 5.2% spike); New South Wales (-3.6%); and Western Australia (-0.8%). These declines were partially offset by job advertising rises in Tasmania (2.0%); Victoria (1.7%); Queensland (1.6%); the ACT (0.7%); and the Northern Territory (0.1%).
The number of internet job advertisements fell slightly by 0.3% in September to an average of 227,738 per week. ANZ says that in trend terms internet job advertisements are still growing solidly, with annual growth running at 37.7%, up from a rate of 25.9% ten months ago. It’s just that the monthly trend rate of increase is easing.
The economists believe this easing suggests “some steadying” in the demand for labour may be occurring after a period when demand for labour in Australia has been rising very strongly.