Job advertisements surged 19.1 percent to a year long high in February, according to the ANZ Job Advertisements Series.
The ANZ Job Advertisements Series, which measures job advertisements in both newspapers and on the internet found job ads rose 19.1 percent in February to an average of 159,778 ads per week, seasonally adjusted.
The February result marks a sharp turnaround from January which saw an 8.1 percent drop in advertisements and leads to speculation that January was an anomalous data point in the Job Advertisements Series.
The February 2010 Job Advertisements Series returned the highest result since the same month last year and were only 2.3 percent lower.
“Total job advertisements are continuing to improve month on month from their cyclical low point last year,” said ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan.
“This has already translated into solid employment growth and reduced unemployment, even through a period of relatively strong labour force growth.”
“A massive 194,600 jobs have been added to the labour market over the last five months (96,000 of them full-time), while 147,800 additional people joined the labour force,” he said.
Underemployment is still a concern, with most of the jobs being created either part-time or casual positions.
“A record 30.2 per cent of all jobs are now part-time, or less than 35 hours per week, and despite the big surge in employed people, total aggregate hours worked across the economy remains near the level it was a year ago.” Mr Hogan said.
“This indicates a significant degree of spare capacity or under-employment still exists among current employees in terms of their potential to increase their work hours.”
