(This story was originally written and published on Wednesday, 29th June 2011. It has bee re-published to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere).

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArena

Australia's "miracle economy" has shed some of its strength this year and unfortunately it was not all due to weather related events, or even the earthquake in Japan, or the growth deceleration in the US, China and elsewhere. Domestically, the environment for most sectors has remained tough and this has had a direct impact on the labour market where recent data have surprised to the downside.

No surprise thus, share prices for labour market related services providers including Seek ((SEK)), Talent2 ((TWO)) and Chandler Macleod ((CMG)) have lost quite a bit of value since April-May this year. This has already prompted a response from analysts at BA-Merrill Lynch that Seek shares are now too cheaply priced. A substantial part of this assessment is based upon an anticipation that Australia's labour market will continue