Job vacancies resume downward trend

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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has just released job vacancies data for the November quarter, which fully reversed the increase of the previous quarter:

  • Total job vacancies in November 2011 were 182,200, a decrease of 0.8% from August 2011.
  • The number of job vacancies in the private sector was 164,900 in November 2011, a decrease of 0.7% from August 2011.
  • The number of job vacancies in the public sector was 17,200 in November 2011, a decrease of 1.2% from August 2011.

Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, this survey was suspended for 21 months over 2008-09, leaving a large gap in the data. Nevertheless, the data is now clearly showing that the number of job vacancies are trending down after rising strongly between November 2009 and November 2010:

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Looking at the individual states, job vacancies in the non-mining states are falling, partly offset by increases in Queensland and Western Australia:

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The overall decline in job vacancies is consistent with more frequent monthly labour market indicators, such as the NAB employment index and the ANZ job ads index, which have exhibited a softer tone over the past year.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.