Job Ads rebound in June but there’s a long way to go

ANZ Australian Job Ads rose by a record 42.0% m/m in June but remain down 44.6% y/y. 

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ANZ Senior Economist, Catherine Birch, commented:

ANZ Job Ads rose by a record 42.0% m/m in June, dwarfing the previous record monthly increase of 17.7% in February 2010.

Week-to-week movements were positive as well, showing consistent improvement throughout the month. This is not overly surprising, given that COVID-19 restrictions continued to ease across most of Australia during June.

SEEK noted that the strongest growth in SEEK job ads has been in the hospitality and tourism sector. This is a good sign for at least some of the 381,000 workers in accommodation and food services and arts and recreation who lost employment between February and May.

Despite the rebound in June, ANZ Job Ads were still 41% lower than they were in February, before the pandemic began to impact the labour market. After an initial bounce, we expect the recovery will be a lot slower. There have been a number of recent large-scale lay-offs announced across a wide range of sectors, including travel, retail, media, consulting, and education.

And the rise in new COVID-19 cases in Melbourne and return to lockdowns in several postcodes also pose a risk to the pace and timing of the recovery. 

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