Daily News

View All News

Australia – Job advertisements at highest level in over three years

08 February 2016

Job advertising in Australia rose 1% in January 2016 from December, its highest level in three and a half years, according to a survey by ANZ bank. Ads were also 10.8% higher than in January last year.

Meanwhile, Internet ads increased by 1.1% in January, compared to the previous month and newspaper ads fell 3.2%, compared to the previous month. Newspaper ads have been in decline for years and account for only a fraction of the total.

The data confirms "the broader cyclical upswing in hiring intentions that has been evident since early 2014," Warren Hogan, chief economist, ANZ Bank, said. “The pace of hiring should be enough to keep the unemployment rate steady for now.”

Australia’s unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8% for December 2015, the same as the previous month and saw a loss of 1,000 jobs compared to the previous month. In 2015, total employment increased by 305,000, the second strongest year of job creation in this century after 2006.

"The unemployment rate appears to now be in cyclical decline," Hogan said. “But in 2016 it is unlikely that the Australian economy will enjoy the same strong rate of job creation as headwinds to growth stiffen.”

"Overall we see the job ads series, in conjunction with other leading indicators of labour demand, as consistent with further moderate employment gains in early 2016, enough at least to keep the unemployment rate stable," Hogan said.