Australia: Job Ads Strengthen in January

The total number of jobs advertised in Australian major newspapers and on the internet rose 1.8 percent in January to an average of 276,969 per week. The increase followed a solid 4.9 percent rise in December. The total number of advertisements in January was 31.9 percent higher than 12 months ago.

There were marked differences between the different channels for advertising jobs.

The number of job advertisements in Australian newspapers declined by 9 percent in January. This followed a 2.4 percent increase in December. In trend terms the number of newspaper job advertisements were 0.5 percent higher than a year ago.

The number of internet job advertisements grew by a solid 2.7 percent in January to average 257,830 per week. In trend terms, internet job advertisements increased by 1.9 percent to be 33.4 percent higher than a year ago.

ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics, Tony Pearson, said: “The continued trend increase in the total number of job advertisements in January suggests the demand for labour remains very healthy. Trend employment growth is strongly, with an additional 268,000 jobs created in 2007. The forward nature of the relationship between the Job Advertisements series and trend employment suggests employment growth will remain solid over coming months. As a result, the current tight labour market conditions are expected to continue well into 2008.”

“One of the stand out features of the Australian economy over the past six months is that economic growth and the demand for labour have remained robust despite a slowing global economy, continued financial market volatility, progressive increases in domestic interest rates and a persistently high Australian dollar. The latest job advertisement figures suggest this healthy performance has continued in the early part of 2008.”

“The fall in newspaper job advertisements in January across all states (but not the two territories) is unusual. We would caution against placing too much weight on one month’s numbers as the monthly data are volatile and can be influenced by changes in the seasonal pattern. For these reasons we tend to focus more on the trend data. To the extent the newspaper data indicate differences in demand for labour between regions across Australia, the trend data over the past few months suggest some easing in demand for labour in Western Australia, with continued solid demand in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory,” Mr Pearson said.