From mid-2017 onwards, year-on-year growth rates in the total number of job advertisements consistently exceeded 10%. That was until mid-2018 when the annual growth rate fell back markedly and then tracked lower for the remainder of 2018. Figures in the beginning of 2019 continued that trend and the latest April figures have continued to go backwards, albeit at a slower pace.
April’s figures have now been released by ANZ and, after revisions and seasonal adjustments, total advertisements slipped by 0.1% to 166,464. On a 12-month basis, total job advertisements fell by 5.6%, a slight improvement on March’s comparable figure of -6.2% after revisions.
ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics, David Plank said, “After five successive steep falls, it is pleasing to see a virtually unchanged result in job ads for April.”
Financial markets responded by sending local bond yields lower while the expectation of rate cuts through 2019 and 2020 firmed, although some part of the reaction may have been related to the Melbourne Institute’s Inflation Gauge figures which had been released around the same time. By the end of the day, the yield on 3-year ACGBs had lost 4bps to 1.23%, 10-year yields had dropped 6bps to 1.75% and 20-year yields were 4bps lower at 2.18%.