Archive, Industry News

Job advertisements continue to strengthen in January

The total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet rose 1.8 percent in January to

The total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan 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 major metropolitan newspapers declined by 9 percent in January to an average of 19,139 per week.

This followed a 2.4 percent increase in December. In trend terms the number of newspaper job advertisements fell by 0.6 percent, but remained 0.5 percent higher than a year ago.

The fall in newspaper job advertisements in January was widespread, with falls in New South Wales (-18.9 percent); Tasmania (-16.9 percent); Western Australia (-9.6 percent); Queensland (-8 percent), Victoria (-3.6 percent) and South Australia (-2.6 percent).

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.”

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