Jobs advertisements continue to rise
Monday January 11, 2010
Australian jobs ads results from the December ANZ Job Advertisements Series have given positive results again as the economy and workforce continue to recover from the Global Financial Crisis.
Overall for the month of December jobs ads rose by 6.0 per cent for ads posted in both newspapers and internet advertising sites with an average 149,063 jobs advertised every week. This is the second consecutive increase with November's results posting a 5.2 per cent increase. Total job advertisements are now sitting at 19.1 per cent higher than the cyclical trough that was experienced in July 2009, although the figure is a significant 22.6 per cent lower than December 2008.
One of the more positive results in terms of trends is that the growth in job advertisements has accelerated to their fastest since May 2007 to 2.6 per cent.
Internet jobs ads
Internet jobs ads numbers reached an average of 138,432 per week for December, an increase of 5.6 per cent since the month before, although they remain down 24.1 per cent from December 2008.
Newspaper jobs ads
Results were even more positive for newspaper jobs ads with a massive increase of 11.6 per cent in December for major metropolitan newspapers with an average weekly ads figure of 10,631. The ANZ results show that this rise follows on from the 8.3 per cent increase recorded in November, leaving the newspaper jobs ads in a far better position than twelve months ago being 4.8 per cent higher.
State and territory results in newspaper job advertisements (seasonally adjusted)
All states except Queensland and Western Australia have reported figures higher than the same period last year.
Northern Territory - up 62.6 per cent
New South Wales - up 13.9 per cent
Victoria - 11.6 per cent
Australian Capital Territory - up 10.6 per cent
Queensland - up 9.5 cent
Western Australia - up 4.0 per cent
South Australia and Tasmania - posted declines although no figure was supplied
ANZ Acting Chief Economist Warren Hogan said that the results were highly positive given that the industry has recovered so quickly after the downturn, "indicating the 'mildness' of the downturn Australia has experienced over the past 18 months,'' he said.
"Total job advertisements are now well past the low reached in July 2009 and are continuing to improve. This is already translating into employment growth and helping to keep the unemployment rate relatively stable, despite accelerating population and labour force growth."
Mr Hogan went on to highlight the total employment in the Australian economy in November was already at a record high of 10.898 million jobs.
"In the near term, the forward indicators appear positive for some solid employment growth in December and over the summer months, although probably at a slower pace than seen in the last three months.
The December Labour Force report, which is due to be released this week, is expected to confirm this theory with Mr Hogan saying that ANZ expects a further increase in net employment of around 30,000 in December.
"This would keep pace with population and labour force growth and help hold the unemployment rate stable at around 5.7 per cent."
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