Australia | May 05 2008
By Chris Shaw
For two months job advertisements data were trending down but April has seen a reversal of that trend with the ANZ Job Ads series for the month showing a 3.1% increase in the total number of job ads to an average of just more than 275,000 per week. This leaves the total number of ads 20.8% higher than for this time a year ago, showing conditions in the Australian labour market remain tight.
Newspaper ads enjoyed strong gains for the month, increasing by more than 16% to an average of almost 20,000 per week after falling more than 10% in March. All states enjoyed an increase, with Queensland’s 13.9% increase the largest monthly gain since 2002. The trend remains down though, as compared to a year ago the number of ads in newspapers is now 7.7% lower.
Ads on the internet rose 2.2% to an average of just over 255,000 per week and in contrast to newspapers this represents continued growth as in trend terms there has been an increase of 20% from the same time last year.
ANZ deputy chief economist Tony Pearson suggests despite the gains in April the trend of the past several months indicates something of a plateau, with the slowing in momentum likely to flow through into a slowing in employment growth in coming months.
Pearson suggests such an outcome would be in line with other economic data that also suggest the Australian economy is slowing, as recent consumer confidence, housing finance approvals and retail sales data all point to a cooling in activity levels. With this trend being taken into account Pearson suggests it is not surprising businesses are becoming more cautious with respect to hiring new workers.