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The Australian labour market continues to show signs of weakness as job advertisements again fell in November, according to the latest ANZ Job Ads survey.
A month on month fall of 0.8 per cent in November left job advertisements 10 per cent lower than the same period a year ago.
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ANZ head of Australian economics, corporate and commercial, Justin Fabo said while the number of job advertisements continues to decline, the rate of deterioration has slowed.
According to Mr Fabo, the labour market is feeling opposing pressures as some areas of the economy perform better than others.
“Low interest rates are clearly having a positive impact on interest-rate sensitive sectors of the economy, with housing turnover and prices picking up strongly. There is now evidence of a supply-side response to this demand for housing, with recent strong rises in building approvals pointing to a solid improvement in housing construction in 2014,” he said.
“Tentative signs are emerging that the strength in housing and the lower Australian dollar are beginning to flow into better conditions for domestic retailers, with retail sales rising solidly in recent months,” he said.
However, despite the improvements in interest sensitive sectors of the economy, labour market conditions are likely to remain soggy in the near term, according to Mr Fabo.
“The resources boom is now moving into the operational/production phase which is expected to be less labour-intensive than the investment phase. While this will likely see net exports contribute strongly to GDP growth over the next few years, growth in domestic demand – and employment – is likely to remain more subdued,” he said.
Mr Fabo expects the November unemployment rate, released by the Australia Bureau of Statistics this Thursday, to increase 0.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent.
