More confirmation that whatever is happening in some parts of the economy, demand for labour remains strong.
Figures out yesterday show that the solid economy has again delivered strong jobs growth, with the total number of jobs advertised surging in December.
The latest ANZ Job Advertisements survey shows the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet jumped 7.1% last month, an average of 274,653 a week.
That was the strongest monthly increase since May last year and comes despite the survey also revealing signs of a slowdown in jobs growth in the key resources state of Western Australia.
It's a strong hint that Thursday's release of December's labour force figures will show a solid gain in the month and over calendar 2007.
The ANZ said the total number of advertisements in December was 31% higher than 12 months ago, again a sign of the strength of demand for labour.
The ANZ said the internet was again the main area of action for job seekers and advertisers. The number of internet job advertisements rose 7.4% in December to average 253,361 per week, while the bank said that in trend terms, internet job advertisements increased by 1.7% to be 33.3% above a year ago.
"Overall, the Australian economy retains considerable momentum despite the effects of global financial market uncertainty, higher interest rates, the relatively strong Australian dollar and record oil prices,'' ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake said in a statement accompanying the survey results..
"The surge in the number of job advertisements in December indicates the demand for labour remains very strong.''
He said that since hitting a trough in August 2007, monthly trend jobs growth has continued to pick up pace, adding that employment growth was likely to increase moderately over the coming months.
"As a result, the current tight labour market conditions are expected to continue well into 2008,'' he said.
The rise in newspaper job advertisements in December was driven by increases in NSW (7.7%), Tasmania (8.8%), the Northern Territory (8.2%), the ACT (6.3%), South Australia (5.3%), Victoria (2.3%) and Western Australia (1.2%).
However, the other boom state of Queensland went against the national strength and saw a small decline of 0.9%.
Mr Eslake said that looking at job advertisements by state, it continues to be the smaller states (and territories) of Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory which are showing the strongest trend increases in job advertisements.
He said New South Wales was also showing strong signs of improvement but in contrast, Western Australia appears to be coming off the boil with a slight easing in job ads.
The ANZ's figures were backed up by the latest internet only survey from Seek.
The SEEK Employment Index, also released yesterday, showed the number of jobs advertised on the SEEK website rose by 0.9% last month in seasonally adjusted terms.
Seek said that over the 12 months to December, new job ads rose by 35.5%, with a particularly strong rise of 22.9% in the second half of the year.
During December and throughout the year, the growth in new job ads was particularly strong in Western Australia and Queensland while Seek said NSW experienced the lowest annual growth in new job ads at 20%.
