Job Ads slide further in November

ANZ Australian Job Ads fell 1.7% m/m in November, following a 1.0% m/m drop in October. Job Ads are now down 12.6% y/y. In trend terms, Job Ads fell 0.3% m/m and 11.1% y/y. 

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ANZ Senior Economist, Catherine Birch, commented:

ANZ Job Ads slid a further 1.7% m/m in November and are now down almost 15% from their cyclical peak in May 2018. Although there has been a longer lag than usual, the downturn in the number of advertisements may be starting to filter through to the labour market.

In October, we saw the first substantial fall (-19k) in employment in three years (a small 1k employment drop was recorded in May 2018). We expect employment growth to decline into 2020, lagging the deterioration in GDP growth over the past year.

While we expect the Q3 GDP data (Wednesday 4 December) to show growth starting to gradually pick up from its low, the fact that the ANZ Job Ads figure is still falling suggests that the softness in the labour market has a way to run.

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