Public sector job cuts are helping put the ACT's position as the home of the nation's lowest unemployment rate under threat.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
New figures issued today show the number of job ads fell for the fifth time in the first six months of the year, and an economist is partly blaming the cuts in the recent federal budget.
Total job ads fell 1.2 per cent across the country in June. Ads on the internet fell 1.1 per cent, while newspaper ads were down 3.3 per cent.
ANZ economist Justin Fabo said the ACT recorded a larger fall in newspaper ads, which were down 4.1 per cent to a seasonally adjusted 355 in the ACT in June. It was the second straight monthly fall and the fifth for the year, and leaves levels 26 per cent lower than a year earlier.
"Weaker newspaper job advertising in the ACT and Tasmania points to continuing challenging labour market conditions in the near term, the former partly due to a tightening in government agency budgets," he said.
There is a nation-wide trend away from newspaper ads and towards internet ads, and Australian Public Service agencies have been discouraged from advertising in newspapers in recent years.
However, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data also points to a drop in job vacancies in the public sector in the ACT.
Public sector job vacancies dropped from 1500 in February to 1100 in May in unadjusted terms, according to the latest figures issued late last month. It was the fifth straight drop from a recent high of 1900 in May last year. Total job vacancies were also down in the ACT in the month, from 5800 to 4700 in unadjusted terms.
Chamber of Commerce ACT chief executive Chris Peters also said the Commonwealth budget was partly to blame for the reduction in job ads.
"There are still some positions being filled and the Commonwealth is advertising some positions, but far less than they have been. And secondly, the ongoing incredibly low unemployment rate means that it continues to be difficult for employers to find staff and sometimes they just give up trying to advertise," he said.
The ACT has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, at 3.4 per cent in trend terms, according to the latest official figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, Western Australia has been steadily heading downwards this year, dropping from 4.2 per cent in trend terms last year to 3.8 per cent in May. The data will be updated with June's results on Thursday.
Mr Peters said the mining boom was making it be hard for the ACT to hold off Western Australia's charge to take the nation's lowest unemployment rate.
"The fact that our unemployment rate has been below West Australia's is quite amazing considering the resource boom that the west is experiencing, and it is certainly expected that West Australia will continue to have a falling unemployment rate," he said.
"I expect [the ACT's unemployment rate] will stay steady, but I suspect we could well be overtaken by WA."
Mr Fabo did not expect there would be a big change in the national unemployment rate in the June labour force figures, to be published Thursday.
"The unemployment rate has trended modestly lower since October last year and employment growth has improved a little in recent months. Despite this modest improvement, labour market conditions remain relatively soft overall, as evidenced by rising underemployment and an increase in the number of Australians receiving unemployment benefits," he said.
"While the recent decline in job advertisements suggests that labour market outcomes could be a little soft in the near term, we do not expect a rapid or significant deterioration in conditions going forward."
He said the Reserve Bank would watch the labour market data closely, but he did not expect it would change rates for some time.
