Australia | Jul 06 2009
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck
ANZ economists report the ANZ Job Advertisements Series showed the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet fell by 6.7% in June to a weekly average of 127,346 per week. This follows a 0.2% fall in May. The total number of advertisements in June was 51.4% lower than 12 months earlier. In trend terms, the total number of job advertisements fell by 4.5% in June to be 52.1% lower than 12 months earlier.
The survey has also shown the number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers increased by 0.9% in June to an average of 8,192 per week. This follows a 1.0% drop in May. Newspaper advertisements are now 50.7% lower than in June 2008. In trend terms, the number of newspaper job advertisements fell by 2.0% in June to be 53.9% lower than a year ago.
ANZ reports the rise in newspaper job advertisements in June was driven by increases in Victoria (7.0%), Western Australia (3.6%), Northern Territory (2.2%), Queensland (1.2%) and the ACT (0.3%). In contrast, Tasmania (-12.2%), South Australia (-4.9%) and New South Wales (-1.2%) experienced
falls in newspaper job advertisements in June.
The number of internet job advertisements fell by 7.2% in June to average 119,154 per week. They were 51.5% lower than 12 months earlier. In trend terms, internet job advertisements fell by 4.6% in June to be 52.0% lower than in June 2008.
ANZ Head of Australian Economics Warren Hogan, labels the June survey “a disappointing result” following signs of stabilisation in recent months. He points out all of the weakness was due to a large fall in internet ads, which fell 7.2% in the month. Internet job advertising is now down 51.5% over the past year, a new low point in the current cycle and the weakest annual reading since the series began in 1998, he highlights.
Newspaper job ads posted a minor recovery but even so, says Hogan, newspaper advertising is still half the level of a year ago.
Hogan also points out that just about all of the increase in the unemployment rate in Australia has thus far been driven by labour force growth -due to both high participation and rising natural growth- and not because of job cuts. As such, the level of total employment in Australia, recorded as 10.79m people in May 2009, remains close to the peak seen in October last year of 10.82m.
ANZ expects employment to fall by 32,000 in June and the unemployment rate to rise to 5.9% when the ABS releases the Labour Force report on Thursday. Just about all leading indicators of employment, including business surveys and the ANZ Job Ads series point to declining employment levels over the second half of the year, the bank points out.