The total number of jobs advertised in the major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet fell by 1.7 per cent in July, the latest ANZ Job Advertisements Series has revealed.
The fall in advertisements follows a 6.7 per cent drop in June.
According to the Series, the total number of advertisements in July was 51.9 per cent lower than 12 months earlier.
In trend terms, the total number of job advertisements fell by 3.5 per cent in July, following a 4.6 per cent fall in June, to be 52.6 per cent lower than 12 months earlier.
According to ANZ head of economics Warren Hogan, the drop in total advertisements represents the fifteenth consecutive monthly decline.
Somewhat encouragingly however, the trend pace of decline in job ads has eased for the past five months, a tentative sign that job ads may soon stabilise and that businesses may stop cutting back on hiring intentions.
However, ANZ still expects employment to contract moderately throughout the rest of 2009, forecasting the unemployment rate to rise to 6.1 per cent when the ABS releases the Labour Force report on Thursday.
