Australian Job Ads Down For Seventh Straight Month in October
Job advertisements in Australia's Internet and newspapers continued to drop for a seventh straight month in October, latest monthly figures released by the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ) showed on Monday. It was the country's lowest in more than two years since January 2010.
Job advertisements in October plummeted 4.6 per cent month-on-month, after a drop of 3.9 per cent in September.
Both mediums - Internet and newspaper advertising - registered declines, with the latter giving off the bigger fall. Internet advertising sank by 4.6 per cent in October, down 14.4 per cent from a year ago, while newspaper advertising fell 4.1 per cent, or 26.9 per cent from the previous year.
"The general trend of weaker job advertising and continuing job losses as businesses restructure and cut costs suggests continuing upward pressure on the unemployment rate," Ivan Colhoun, ANZ Bank's head of Australian economics and property research, said in a statement.
All states reported drops in newspaper advertising in October, with the bigger declines recorded in Victoria, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
ANZ foresees employment in October to dive 8,000 and the unemployment rate to pause at 5.4 per cent on its upward trend.
''This continuing upward pressure on the unemployment rate will see the RBA cut interest rates further,'' Mr Colhoun said.
Australia's official unemployment rate jumped to 5.4 per cent in September from 5.1 per cent in August.
"Further stimulus from monetary policy is likely to be necessary," Mr Colhoun said, as he noted that interest rates still remain too high given the continuing weakness in many parts of the economy.
"Especially while the Australian dollar remains stubbornly high, in order to ensure that activity in other sectors of the economy picks up to replace the winddown of the mining investment boom from the second half of next year."