Drake Australia’s chief executive officer, Matthew Tukaki has refuted an analysis of the job market released this morning by ANZ Bank warning of fragility in the current economic recovery phase.
ANZ Bank’s monthly survey of job advertisements, measured by the number of major metropolitan newspaper and internet-based job advertisements, showed a drop of 8.1 percent in January to an average of 134,106 per week, allowing for seasonal adjustment, in comparison with a 4.6 percent gain in December.
“The monthly decline in job advertisements highlights the fragility inherent in the current recovery phase, but we should see more solid growth rates as we move further into 2010,” ANZ acting chief economist Warren Hogan said in a statement this morning.
However, Drake Australia has refuted the results of the latest ANZ survey, advising that the holiday period is no slower than usual. Tukaki retorted in a statement to the media: “January compared to December is generally a poor month for job advertisements, when you take into account that a majority of Australians take annual leave for at least the first and second week of January. It’s hardly surprising job advertising drops. Who’s going to advertise when half the eligible candidates aren’t even looking?”
He believes the important fact to focus on is company hiring intentions and the continued strong performance of the domestic economy. “In Drake’s recent Gearing Up for Growth survey, 78.4% of companies said that the recruitment of permanent staff was an important people-management strategy if their company was to grow effectively as the domestic economy returned to growth” he explained.
“Given that 84% of companies expect to grow, then we expect the momentum of four consecutive months of employment growth from the last quarter of 2009 to continue into 2010.”
