Job advertisements ticked lower in April, as the latest figures from ANZ Bank suggest the economy has lost some momentum after strong growth in the second half of 2015.
The closely watched ANZ Australian Job Ads series slipped 0.8 per cent month on month to 153,973 ads, with 2,392 ads posted in newspapers, while the remainder were posted online.
The number has remained broadly unchanged since October 2015.
“The number of job ads has been broadly flat now for six months,” wrote ANZ’s head of Australian economics, Felicity Emmett.
“This follows a period of substantial growth in employment, so some modest slowdown should probably not be surprising.”
Economists noted that firms were uncertain about the near-term outlook on the back of the double dissolution election in July and a general softening of the economic outlook.
Last week the Government handed down its 2016 budget to mixed consensus while on the same day theRBA cut its cash rate to a historic low of 1.75 per cent after inflation figures came in lower than expected.
“Inflation is very low and likely to stay outside the RBA’s 2–3 per cent target band for some time,” Ms Emmett wrote.
“Hiring looks to be taking a breather for the time being, and further significant inroads into the unemployment rate may be more difficult to achieve in the near term.”
news source: abc.net.au
