ANZ Job Ads: lacklustre print

KEY POINTS

• On a seasonally adjusted basis, ANZ Australian Job Advertisements declined 0.8% in September, following a fall of 0.7% in the prior month. On an annual basis, growth slowed to 4.7% in September (vs 5.1% in August).
• In trend terms, job ads fell by 0.1% m/m for the fourth consecutive month. Job ads grew 4.9% y/y to September (down from 5.8% y/y in August).  

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ANZ’S HEAD OF AUSTRALIAN ECONOMICS, DAVID PLANK,  COMMENTED:

“ANZ job ads have essentially tracked sideways since they jumped sharply at the start of this year. The level of job ads is still consistent with ongoing employment growth, but at a level that stabilises the unemployment rate rather than pushes it lower. Other indicators of jobs growth are more positive, however, such as the ABS job vacancies series. This suggests to us that the unemployment rate will most likely head lower over time. This is critical to our expectation that the economy can navigate through a period of falling house prices without getting derailed. A marked decline in ANZ job ads would be a negative signal in this regard. So far that has been avoided.”

Please see attached document for further details.