The December ANZ Job Advertisements have come in at -3.8% MoM (vs. -2.9% for November). The series has been below zero for 9 consecutive months now. We are due to see the official employment figures out of Australia on Thursday morning (Australian time); today’s figures do not bode well.
Updated graph:
- Job advertisements have plunged to almost half the level reached ahead of the 2008 global financial crisis,
- ANZ economist Justin Fabo said without a solid pick-up in non-mining sectors of the economy, Australia’s jobless rate will climb to around 5.75 per cent from the current rate of 5.2 per cent during the second half of this year.
- Mr Fabo also pointed to falling workforce participation, which has masked weakness in the labour market. “The degree of spare capacity in the labour market … is already greater than the current jobless rate suggests, with labour force participation among some key working age groups falling noticeably over the past couple of years,”
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics will on Thursday release official figures for unemployment in December, with economists forecasting a rise in the unemployment rate to 5.4 per cent.
