The number of job advertisements in Australian newspapers and on the internet fell again in August, marking the largest monthly decline in more than seven years.
The ANZ monthly job advertisements series, a guide to trends in demand for labour, found the total number of jobs ads in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet in August fell by 4.9 per cent to an average of 249,114 per week seasonally adjusted.
This follows a fall of 0.3 per cent in July.
Job ads were down 0.3 per cent from a year earlier.
The number of job ads in major metropolitan newspapers fell by 4.0 per cent last month to an average of 15,105 per week, following a decline of 5.2 per cent in July.
Newspaper job ads are now 25.8 per cent lower than in August, 2007.
The number of jobs advertised on the internet fell 5.0 per cent in August to an average of 234,009 per week, down from an average of 246,197 in July.
ANZ head of Australian economics, Warren Hogan, said the 4.9 per cent fall in total job ads was the largest monthly decline since February 2001 and the fourth consecutive monthly decline.
"There were substantial falls in both newspapers and internet advertisements during the month," he said.
Mr Hogan said the overall trend in job ads continued to weaken, indicative of a significant slowing in hiring intentions across Australia in 2008.
"The recent trends in newspaper job advertisements highlight the risk of an even more rapid slowing of employment growth than previously thought."
ANZ is currently forecasting unemployment to be around five per cent by mid-2009, but said it may need to adjust that figure if there are similar declines to those seen last month.
"Further declines of the magnitude seen in August may force us to revise our view that we will see only a modest rise in the unemployment rate over the year ahead," Mr Hogan said.
He said recent trends in job ads were consistent with other indicators of domestic spending which had slowed abruptly over the first half of 2008.
"This has been an important factor in the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) decision to reduce interest rates this month and will most likely lead to another 25 basis point reduction before the end of the year.
"If this weakness in job advertisements flows through into rising unemployment in 2009, there will be greater scope for interest rate reductions next year."