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 at the beginning of 2019 continued that trend and the latest figures have continued to do so.
March’s figures have now been released by ANZ and, after revisions and seasonal adjustments, total advertisements fell by 1.7% to 166,509. On a 12-month basis, total job advertisements shrank by 6.0%, a further deterioration from February’s comparable figure of -4.4% after revisions.
ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics, David Plank said, “Job ads are not showing any signs of reversing the weakness seen for some time.”
Reactions in local financial markets were consistent in their message, although bond yields may have been just following US movements from Friday night. In any case, by the end of the Australian trading day 3-year, 10-year and 20-year Treasury bond yields were all 3bps lower at 1.39%, 1.88% and 2.30% respectively.