Australia | Mar 11 2008
By Chris Shaw
Evidence recent increases in official interest rates are beginning to bite on the Australian economy is emerging as ANZ Banking Group’s Job Advertisements series for February posted a 2% fall for the month to an average of 268,869 advertisements per week, the first decline since November of 2006.
ANZ Bank head of Australian economics Tony Pearson points out the figures now show a three month trend of a decline in the pace of growth in job ads, suggesting some caution on the part of employers. Overall job ad numbers remain high though as the February numbers are 24.4% higher than for the same time last year, which suggests demand for workers remains strong.
The figures show newspaper ads rose 0.3%, which reversed the 9% drop in January but means total newspaper ads have fallen 2.2% from a year ago, while internet ads in February fell 2.2% but remain 29.1% higher than for February last year.
Strongest performance in trend terms comes from the ACT and the Northern Territory, while New South Wales and Victoria posted relatively flat figures and the other states posted declines. Driving the decline in newspaper ads were poor figures in both Queensland and South Australia, both down around 7% in terms of month-on-month figures. The other states posted modest gains in newspaper ads.