ANZ has released its job ads survey for May, which revealed a sharp 5.6% decline in the number of job advertisements – the first fall in five months.
ANZ attributed the decline in job advertisements to the “tough” Federal Budget:
“The key question now is whether the fall in job ads is largely temporary,” said ANZ Senior economist, Justin Fabo. “If it isn’t, this will be a risk to our forecast that labour demand will improve slowly this year amid modestly better economic conditions, with the unemployment rate expected to remain close to 6% for some time.”
According to Marketscuttlebutt, it was the largest decline in the series since May 2011, with advertisements also 2.7% lower than the same month a year ago (see next chart):
Next month is also likely to register a fall given that job ads have declined in five of the last six years in June.
