Job numbers pick up in Australia



UNEMPLOYMENT rates in Australia have remained unchanged at 4.9 per cent in June but the number of full time jobs is on the rise hopefully signalling a new trend.

Australia has followed the normal employment cycle since the global financial crisis namely mass redundancies, a pick up in temp assignments; a pick up in part time jobs and now finally a pick up in full time jobs.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest job figures on July 7 to show that 23,400 new jobs were created last month. Experts had predicted only about 15,000 new jobs.

The ABS figures follow the release of the monthly ANZ job figures on July 4 that showed a 3.7 per cent rise in job ads in June following a big slide in job ads of 6.5 per cent in May.

The June job ad figures are 9.8 per cent higher than a year ago. Newspaper ads are down 11 per cent compared to a year ago and internet advertising up 11 per cent.

Experts claim the ANZ and ABS employment results ad up to a turnaround in the employment market. Pressure to keep wages down continues to keep inflation low and prevent the Reserve Bank from needing to increase interest rates.

By state and territory, Western Australia had the lowest unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent followed by Victoria at 4.6 per cent, South Australia, 5.1 per cent, NSW 5.2 per cent, Queensland, 5.3 per cent and Tasmania, 5.5 per cent.

Kate Southam, CareerOne.com.au, July 7, 2011