ABS job vacancies fall

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The ABS released its quarterly job vacancies report and for the three months to May and the results are below:

MAY KEY FIGURES

May 2012
Feb 2012 to May 2012
May 2011 to May 2012
‘000
% change
% change

Trend Estimates
Private sector
158.6
-2.6
-5.8
Public sector
16.1
-3.1
-9.2
Private and public sectors
174.7
-2.6
-6.1

Here’s a chart by sector:

That’s a fall in just about everything but construction and education. The ABS unemployment figure would have bounced to around 5.8% in the latter part of last year and early this year had the participation rate not fallen. It appears that growth in the jobs market is weaker this year than it was last, so unless we see more falls in the participation rate, and all things being equal, unemployment must climb ahead, assuming there is sense in the ABS figures.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.