Job advertisements in Australia rose by 39.7% in March 2021 on a seasonally adjusted basis when compared to March 2020, according to data from ANZ Bank.

ANZ Bank’s data is based on information provided by the operators of the following sites: Seek.com.au, and the Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s Australian JobSearch site (Jobsearch.gov.au).

The total number of job ads recorded in March 2021 stood at 190,542. This was the highest level since November 2008 and is pointing to further sharp declines in the unemployment rate.

When compared to the previous month, the number of job ads rose by 7.4%.

ANZ Senior Economist, Catherine Birch, said, “Six months ago, our view was that ANZ Job Ads would need to sustain levels materially higher than pre-pandemic in order to entrench the labour market recovery. ANZ Job Ads has done better than that, now 23% above its pre-COVID level and at a 12-year high. This strength has been reflected in the labour market, with employment close to a record high in February.”

Australia’s JobKeeper programme, aimed at helping keep Australians in jobs and tackle the significant economic impact from the coronavirus, recently ended.

“Of the 1.1 million workers that Treasury estimates were still receiving the JobKeeper payment in Q1, we estimate that 100,000-150,000 people will lose employment, equivalent to 0.8-1.2% of the current workforce. But we think net employment losses will be smaller, as growing labour demand elsewhere should mean many workers find a new job relatively quickly. While we expect a temporary rise in the unemployment rate in Q2, we think it will resume its rapid downward trajectory in H2 2021,” Birch said.

Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 5.8% in February 2021, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.