Another small hint that the strength of the labour market might be fading, even though job vacancies hit another all-time high in the three months to February.
Job vacancies were up 1.1% in the three months to February 2019 in trend adjusted terms, beating market expectations of economists who were forecasting a smaller increase.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), vacancies rose to 244,900 over the quarter, leaving total growth in openings over the year at 9.2%.
While a solid quarterly rise, it was a fraction of the 5.2% from the three months to February 2018, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In contrast, the February ANZ job ads survey showed a 4.3% fall over the year to 169,568 jobs. That was 75,000 jobs short of the ABS survey results.
That was a quarter of the 20% rate in the year to February 2018 -a definite sign of slowing demand for labour.
Bruce Hockman, Chief Economist at the ABS, said that job vacancies continued to grow but at a slower rate than in 2018.
“Growth in the quarterly trend measure of job vacancies eased further to 1.1 percent, which was well below the 5.2 percent seen a year ago,” Mr. Hockman said.
“This was consistent with the recent slowing in other economic indicators.”
Vacancies in the private sector also grew by 1.1% from November to 223,500 in trend terms, leaving the increase on a year earlier also at 9.2%.
Job vacancies in the public sector grew by a slower 0.8% during the quarter to 21,400, although that was still up 9.4% on the levels reported in for the three months to February last year.
In original series terms, New South Wales contributed the most to the growth in vacancies over the year, with health care and social assistance, and construction the two leading industries.
