Slump hits job ads in Australian papers, net

Signalling the depth of the economic downturn and incidentally bringing more bad news to the media industry, ANZ Bank on Monday reported that job advertisements in Australian newspapers and on the internet fell 49.9 per cent on an annual basis.

Total job ads have fallen in each of the past 12 months. The ANZ Group, which compiles its data from major newspapers, said the number of internet job advertisements fell 8.1 per cent in April from March, contributing to an annual decline of 49.2 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms.

ANZ's head of Australian economics, Warren Hogan, said the total number of job advertisements across Australia continued to weaken. He said the decline was mainly due to a large fall in internet advertising. On a brighter note, newspaper ads rose on the back of strong increases in Tasmania and the Northern Territory and a 6.9 per cent increase in New South Wales.

Total job ads have fallen in each of the past 12 months and are now half the level they were in April 2008. This suggested that total employment in Australia would contract over the year ahead, Hogan said.

Official unemployment data for April is due out on Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires last Friday said they expected employment in April to fall 25,000 and unemployment to rise to 5.9 per cent from 5.7 per cent in March.

According to Hogan, the federal government's forecast unemployment rate of 7 per cent by June next year is unrealistic. "We're expecting them to take the unemployment rate to about 8 to 8.25 per cent, which is about where we've got it," he said.