The total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the Internet rose by 2.9 per cent in November, to an average of 184,580 per week, the ANZ Job Advertisements Series shows. This follows a 0.7 per cent increase in September, originally reported as a 1.1 per cent rise.

This is the seventh consecutive monthly rise in total job advertisements. Job advertising is now 33.2 per cent higher than a year ago. While a strong annual rate of growth, this is still below the historic high of 40.2 per cent that was achieved in May 2007 - a time of significant tightness in the labour market. Moreover, the total number of job advertisements remains 33.6 per cent below the all-time peak achieved in April 2008.

In trend terms, growth in job ads moderated to 1.1 per cent MoM in November. This follows growth of 1.4 per cent MoM in October. Trend growth in total job ads is still well above the 10-year average rate of 0.6 per cent MoM. Having reached a 5½-year annual growth rate high of 35.9 per cent in September, YoY trend growth in total job ads has eased slightly to 32.4 per cent in November.

The number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers rose by 0.9 per cent in November. This follows declines in September and October. This rise in newspaper job ads comes despite the structural switch toward internet job ads, particularly in South Australia and Queensland in recent months.

In trend terms, the number of newspaper job advertisements nudged 0.2 per cent higher in November, and YoY growth slowed to 0.9 per cent.

The rise in newspaper job ads in November was led by the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The sharp rise in the Northern Territory and Queensland largely reflects a rebound from falls of 7.3 per cent MoM and 5.0 per cent MoM in October respectively. New South Wales and Tasmania detracted from the job ads growth, while WA and the ACT were broadly steady.

In annual growth terms, newspaper job advertisements are falling in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, while growing in Western Australia and the Territories. The falls in the majority of states, likely reflects the continuing structural change towards internet job advertising as well as some recent slowing of growth in advertisements - after particularly strong growth through the end of 2009 and into the start of 2010. This is noticeable in NSW, which has now recorded three successive monthly falls. The strength in annual job ads growth is most pronounced in Western Australia.

The number of Internet job advertisements rose by 3.0 per cent in November. Internet job advertisements are now 35.6 per cent higher than they were a year ago.

In trend terms, Internet job advertisements grew by 1.1 per cent MoM and 34.7 per cent YoY in November.