Job Openings Decline Anew

The latest ANZ Job Ads survey showed that job ads decline for the sixth consecutive month. In September, job advertisements fell 2.8 percent.

According to the survey, the total volume of job ads is 10.8 percent lower compared to last year’s figure. These include Internet advertising, which fell close to three percent last month) and newspaper ads decreased 3.6 percent.

Internet advertisements in general fell 10.1 percent compared to last year while newspaper ads declined about 20 percent since May of this year.

Ivan Colhoun said the new figures show that the labor market is slowing down. The last time the trend was observed was in the second half of last year. It reflected the slowdown in the country’s employment growth.

Colhoun is the head of ANZ’s Australian economics and property research.

He added that the labor market may continue to soften. The public should also expect unemployment rate to go higher in the next few months.

In recent months, several companies announced several project cancellations and mass layoffs. Caltex axed about 630 jobs. Mining companies Xstrata Coal and BHP Billiton chopped down about 900 jobs last September.

Industry observers said the unemployment rate may increase from 5.1 percent to 5.3 percent because of mass layoffs.

And if the mining boom is indeed over, more jobs are expected to be axed, as well.