Australia: Fall in job vacancies – ANZ

Catherine Birch, senior economist at ANZ, notes that Australian job vacancies fell 1.1% in the three months to May 2019 but remain up 1.8% y/y.

Key Quotes

“The decline put an end to 11 consecutive quarterly increases.”

“Across the industries, health recorded the strongest growth in vacancies at 24.2% y/y but construction saw growth fall to 6.1% in May from 33.1% in the previous quarter. The communications, other services, and arts and recreation industries recorded the steepest declines.”

“Both ABS job vacancies and employment growth have been defying gravity for some time, in contrast with most labour market leading indicators, which have been pointing to a slowdown in employment growth. With vacancies now falling, weaker employment growth appears imminent.”