Job ads halve in April

ANZ Australian Job Ads fell 53.1% m/m in April to be down 62.2% y/y. In trend terms, job ads declined 11.2% m/m and 33.9% y/y.

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ANZ Senior Economist, Catherine Birch, commented:

With non-essential services shut down throughout April, ANZ Job Ads tumbled by 53% during the month. This was almost five times the previous record monthly fall of 11.3% in January 2009, which was during the GFC.

Job ads fell progressively over the month, adding to the evidence that the downturn in activity is impacting businesses and the labour market at an unprecedented speed.

• New ABS data show that total employee jobs fell 5.5% w/w and total employee wages paid fell 5.1% w/w in the week ending 4 April.
• An ABS survey reported that 47% of trading businesses made changes to their workforce in the last two weeks of March as a result of COVID-19.
• Department of Social Services data show that the number of total jobseekers (recipients of Newstart/JobSeeker and Youth Allowance (other) has increased by more than 530,000 in the six weeks to 24 April.
• Although we think the JobKeeper payment will flatten the peak in the unemployment rate to 9.5% in Q2, there will still be substantial loss of employment, hours worked and household income over the coming months.

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