From mid-2017 onwards, year-on-year growth rates in the total number of Australian job advertisements consistently exceeded 10%. That was until mid-2018 when the annual growth rate fell back markedly. 2019 was notable for its reduced employment advertising.
According to the latest ANZ figures, total advertisements fell by 6.7% in December on a seasonally-adjusted basis, following a 1.8% fall in November after revisions. On a 12-month basis, total job advertisements were 18.8% lower than the same month last year, a further deterioration from November’s comparable figure of -12.6% after revisions.
ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch said the latest figures provided an unwelcome surprise. “In the final two weeks of December, the number of job ads declined by more than we would expect for that time of the year, suggesting that the escalating bushfire crises had an impact.”
Domestic bond yields finished the day a little higher at the long end while shorter term yields were steady. By the end of the day, 3-year ACGB yields remained unchanged at 0.78%, the 10-year yield had increased by 2bps to 1.24% and 20-year yields had gained 3bps to 1.66%.
Prices of cash futures contracts moved to reflect slightly higher expectations of another cut in the cash rate target. By the end of the day, February contracts implied a 56% chance of another 25bps rate cut, up from the previous day’s 53%. March contracts implied a 73% chance of a cut, up from 71% while April contracts continued to fully price in another rate reduction.