The latest results from ANZ’s monthly job survey show the number of positions advertised in print and online in December dropped almost 10 percent compared with the previous month. Online results hit the lowest level since surveying began in 1998, with print job ads falling more than 30 percent in the last quarter of 2008.
The survey indicates that the annual growth rate for labour demand is weaker than during the 1982 and 1991 recessions.
ANZ spokesperson, head of Australian economics Warren Hogan, called the results “historically consistent with economic recession within the next nine months and a rise in the unemployment rate over the following years”. ANZ forecasts the unemployment rate at six percent this year.
Minister for Workplace Relations Julia Gillard says she is not surprised by the results, saying it is “further evidence of what we already knew, which is that the global financial crisis is the contagion that has moved through the economies of the world is touching our economy”.
Gillard floated the idea of a second stimulus package to help protect jobs and the economy.
