Australia's job advertising fell to a three-year low in December 2012, a survey released on Monday by ANZ Bank showed.

The latest ANZ job advertisements series showed the total number of job advertisements on the internet and in metropolitan newspapers declined 3.8 percent in December, following a fall of 2. 8 percent in November.

ANZ said job advertisements had fallen for the past 10 months and the number of job advertisements in December was the lowest since January 2010.

Over the year, the number of job advertisements declined 16 percent.

ANZ senior economist Justin Fabo said the ongoing weakness in job advertising suggested that conditions for a large share of Australian businesses were still challenging. "We expect growth in the Australian economy to be noticeably below trend this year as the economy transitions towards a lower dependence on mining investment growth," Fabo said in a statement.

"Further monetary easing is therefore necessary to generate sufficient expansion in interest-rate sensitive sectors to support overall growth and limit the rise in the unemployment rate."

ANZ expects a 25 basis point rate cut "in coming months" with further easing expected over the remainder of 2013. Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)