The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released job vacancies data for the May quarter, which continued to recover:
◾Total job vacancies in May 2014 were 146,100, an increase of 2.1% from February 2014.
◾The number of job vacancies in the private sector was 135,000 in May 2014, an increase of 2.0% from February 2014.
◾The number of job vacancies in the public sector was 11,200 in May 2014, an increase of 4.3% from February 2014.
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 clearly showing the number of job vacancies is recovering after falling heavily between February 2011 and November 2013.
Changes in vacancies was mixed across the major capitals, with the strong increase recorded in New South Wales partly offset by weakness in Western Australia and Queensland:
The overall recovery in the ABS job vacancies series is good news for the labour market and portends stronger jobs growth. However, whether this will be enough to keep up with the rapidly growing population remains to be seen.
Moreover, the monthly Department of Employment internet job vacancies report, released yesterday, registered a sharp seasonally adjusted fall in May, with the trend figure also starting to roll over (see next chart).
This could indicate that another period of weakness ahead; although more data is required to confirm whether the labour market is, once again, slowing.
