Data from the ANZ Bank job advertisements series released today show the number of newspaper job advertisements increased by 4.0 per cent in August to an average of 22,463 per week. Newspaper jobs ads are now 6.2% higher than in August 2003.
According to ANZs Chief Economist Karen Pringle, todays data suggest that,
"…employment growth is likely to average 20-25,000 per month on average over the next few months. This pace of jobs growth would be sufficient to push the unemployment rate below its current low level of 5.7%…"
Over 1.3 million new jobs have been created under the Coalition since 1996, and the unemployment rate has fallen from 8.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent. Over the last 12 months the Government has created more than four times the number of full time jobs than were created in the last six years under Labor.
Further, the unemployment rate has now been below 6 per cent for 11 consecutive months, the longest period below 6 per cent since the ABS started collecting monthly data in February 1978.
Labour market conditions are currently the strongest sustained in over 26 years which is the payoff from the wide range of macroeconomic and microeconomic reforms implemented by the Coalition Government.