The labour market has picked up according to the ANZ’s measurement of job ads, with the number of advertisements up 7.5 per cent over the last 12 months.
In October, the number of ads edged further by 0.2 per cent – the fifth consecutive monthly rise in seasonally adjusted terms.
ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan said the improvement was an encouraging sign and the trend would feed into better employment growth outcomes.
“This level of job advertising is consistent with employment growing at an annualised pace of just under 2 per cent, more than the current pace of population growth,” he said.
“The broad suite of indicators suggests the labour market has turned and is on a gradual path of improvement. More broadly, the outlook for the economy is improving. The transition to non-mining drivers of growth appears to be occurring, if only gradually.”
The news comes ahead of today’s RBA board meeting, which will examine a number of economic fundamentals including the declining price of Australian resource exports and the marked fall in housing construction.
Mr Hogan said the RBA was likely to keep rates on hold for the time being before increasing them gradually from the middle of next year.
According to The Australian the Australian Bureau of Statistics will today revise its labour force statistics from December last year to September following its publication of highly dubious results three months ago. A review by retired ABS executive Paul MCarthy into what went wrong will also be released.