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Category: Economic Trends / Unemployment

Employment growth slows late in 2016

Monday, 9 Jan 2017 09:14:00 | Michael Janda

Annual job ads growth of 3.7 per cent was down from levels around 9 per cent early in 2016. (AAP: Lukas Coch)

Job advertisements eased in December, highlighting a slowdown in Australia's employment market over the second half of last year.

ANZ's widely watched job ads report recorded a 1.9 per cent fall in December, seasonally adjusted, following a 1.6 per cent rise the previous month.

"After four consecutive monthly rises, ANZ job ads fell sharply in December, the first fall since July 2016," observed the bank's senior economist, Jo Masters, in the report.

"This weakness is consistent with softer business conditions and corporate profitability."

While jobs ads rose modestly over the month in trend terms, it is clear from ANZ's data that the pace of employment growth continued to slow.

Job ads growth was 3.7 per cent year-on-year in December, a steep fall from 6 per cent in November.

In trend terms, the numbers looked a bit better at 4.7 per cent year-on-year, but this was down sharply from 9.4 per cent annual growth in early 2016.

However, Ms Masters took a positive view of the slow down, pointing out that job ads still rose 0.5 per cent over the fourth quarter.

"While the labour market has clearly lost some momentum, business and consumer confidence remain elevated, capacity utilisation appears to be on the rise, and retail sales have strengthened recently," she observed.

"As such, we continue to expect conditions in the labour market to support an ongoing, albeit gradual, decline in the unemployment rate this year."

AustraliaPlus


 

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