With more than half of Australia’s population currently in lockdown and many businesses in furlough, demand for labour taken a hit. Accordingly, ANZ’s job ad series fell a further 2.5% in August; albeit is holding up much better than last year’s lockdown:
Loss of momentum.
As noted by ANZ, “the cumulative 3.7% fall since June is dwarfed by the 64% plunge between February and May 2020, during the national lockdown”. ANZ is therefore anticipating “sizeable employment losses in locked down states”, alongside a rise in the unemployment rate.
