More support for the Reserve Bank’s contention that monetary policy is about right at the moment from the ANZ jobs report for October.
The survey showed a small 0.4% rise in total job advertisements in newspapers and online to 154,358 per week on average last month. That was after the 3.9% rise in September.
Ads were 12.1 per cent higher on October last year, slightly slower than the 12.8% annual rate in September.
Internet ads rose 0.3% last month, while newspaper ads rose 3%. (Newspaper job ads have been falling for years and essentially meaningless these days in the monthly survey).
"The improving trend in job advertising is good news. Despite some challenges, the economy overall is currently tracking along pretty well,” said the ANZ’s chief economist, Warren Hogan, said in a statement with the survey details.
"In particular, many services industries are experiencing relatively strong demand, and these industries are typically quite labour intensive."
The RBA left its cash rate at 2.0% after its November policy meeting last week, but did note that subdued inflation meant there was scope for a further rate cut if one was needed.
The RBA cited solid employment growth as one reason for keeping policy steady.
Thursday’s jobs report for October is out Thursday and analysts are forecasting a rise of 10,000 to 20,000 with the jobless rate holding at 6.2%.
Friday night’s strong jobs report for October (271,000 new jobs estimated and the jobless rate easing to 5% from 5.1%) has all but decided the market’s mind that US rates will rise at the Fed meeting next month.
