Jump in jobs advertisements adds strength to recovery

Australia’s jobs outlook is increasingly positive, with two reports released today showing the biggest jump in advertised jobs since 2008.

ANZ’s survey of job advertisements grew by 4.1% in August, the first example of monthly growth since April 2008 and the strongest rate of monthly growth since December 2007.

The number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers increased by 5.5% in August to an average of 8,613 per week, while the number of internet job advertisements grew 4% to average 121,713 per week. However, internet jobs ads are still 48.4% lower than 12 months earlier.

“This data provides the best evidence we have received to date that the labour market and the economy more generally are about to enter the recovery phase of this downturn,” ANZ economist Warren Hogan says.

However, he expects it will be some time before the number of Australians in work actually climbs. Employers have cut hours rather than jobs over the last 12 months, and will therefore add hours rather than jobs as the economy recovers.

Meanwhile, the Olivier Job Index shows the number of jobs advertised in Australia has risen almost 2.5% in the last month.

“Job increase has turned a corner,” says Olivier Group director Robert Oliver. “We don’t know when we’ll see a net increase in employment. But for job seekers this is a welcome change.”

Western Australia led the growth, with almost 10% new jobs. ACT and NSW were the only states not showing a rise, with a fall of 4% and 1.25% respectively.

Advertisements for part time jobs are up 10.8% and casual work opportunities increased by 11.5 %.

The rise follows a slowing of the decline in job ads over the past four months, says Olivier.

“We hope job ads bottomed out in July. August figures add weight to that hope. We’d expect to see more economists revising peak unemployment figures downwards.

“With renewed confidence and the pick up in job ads, many top performers who did not lose their jobs but lay low while there were insufficient job opportunities will become active job seekers again,” Olivier said.

The strongest sub sector was transport jobs, which rose 19.15%. Financial services and banking ads grew 11.8 % in the last month, showing that the sectors hardest hit by the financial crisis are starting to recover.

Admin, clerical and office jobs rose 14.35%. Advertising and media by 9.62 %, and trades and services ads were up 6.18%.

The graduate job index also rose more than 30% in the last month, giving hope to this year’s graduates – although it is still down 59% on the same time last year.

Additional research released today by Bankwest identified the first 20 Australian regions to emerge from the financial downturn.

These “growth zones” showed the strongest employment growth since the downturn began in November 2007.

The list of hotspots is lead by east metropolitan Perth at 13% employment increase since November 2007, lower northern Sydney, with 13% increase, and south eastern NSW, with 11% higher employment.

Bankwest Retail CEO Ian Corfield says the report provided further encouragement that the jobs tide might be starting to turn.

“It’s encouraging that nearly half of NSW’s regions, including parts of Sydney, have come through unscathed in terms of job looses,” he says.

In Victoria, the best growth was seen in the inner suburbs, with Melbourne employment jumping by 10%. But employment figures have continued to drop in rural Victoria.

And north, west and central WA have not shared the growth, with employment down by 12% since November 2007.

This was attributed to a sharp contract in mining sector jobs over the past eight months.