What goes up: Employment ads hit two-year low, job cuts to rise next
Job advertisements have fallen to the lowest level in almost two years and economists are warning that unemployment will start to rise.
Job ads have fallen in food preparation and service Photo: Zachary Staines/Unsplash
The ANZ-Indeed job ads series has shown a decline of 3.5 per cent in the past two months but was still high in historical terms.
The data comes ahead of the Reserve Bank board decision tomorrow on interest rates.
The series showed that job ads had fallen 11.2 per cent since the peak in September 22 but it was 45 per cent above the pre-Covid level.
“Slack is slowly creeping into the labour market,” ANZ economists Bansi Madhavani and Adelaide Timbrell said.
The cumulative number of hours worked has fallen and recent job growth was driven by part-time work. Youth unemployment was rising and the under-employment rate has increased.
“This, along with the modest unwinding in job ads numbers suggests the unemployment rate will rise further,” the economists said.
Indeed economist Callum Pickering said the labour market imbalance was gradually easing.
“Recent weakness in job ads has been concentrated in NSW and Victoria with a modest subtraction in Queensland.”
The decline was driven by fewer jobs in food preparation and service, software development and personal care, which offset more opportunities in healthcare and education.
