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Media Release

For release: 11:30 am, 9 March 2010

Job Advertisements leap ahead in February

Highlights

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Total job advertisements on the internet and in newspapers increased by 19.1% inFebruary, more than reversing their 8.1% fall in January.

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Newspaper job ads grew by 13.1%, while internet job ads grew by 19.6% inFebruary.

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In trend terms, total job ads grew 2.3% MoM, slowing from last month’s 2.6% trendgrowth.

Total job advertisements

The ANZ Job Advertisements Series shows the total number of jobs advertised in majormetropolitan newspapers and on the internet grew by 19.6% in February to an averageof 159,778 per week (seasonally adjusted). February’s job advertisements are now just2.3% lower than the same month a year earlier, while they were 26% lower in January.Total job ads are now 27.5% higher than they were at their seasonal trough in July 2009(125,258 ads), but they remain 42.6% below the all-time peak reached in April 2008(278,609 ads).In trend terms, the monthly growth rate in total job ads decelerated to 2.3% in February,which, while still firmly positive, was the slowest pace of growth since September 2009.Annual trend growth improved to the ‘less bad’ rate of -9.2% YoY, from -18.4% inJanuary, and has now been improving each month since June 2009 (see table 1).

Newspaper job advertisements

The number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers grew by 13.1% to9,947 per week in February, reversing the 16.6% fall recorded in January (seas. adj.).Newspaper job advertisements were 14.9% higher than they were in February 2009.In trend terms, the number of newspaper job advertisements grew by 1.1% in February- their weakest monthly growth since June 2009. In annual trend growth rate termshowever, newspaper job ads continued to improve, and were 7% higher than they werein February 2009. This was the first positive annual trend growth reading sinceDecember 2007 (see Table 2).Newspaper job advertisements improved in all states and territories in February(seasonally adjusted) except Queensland, which recorded another fall (-6.3%). The bestmonthly growth rates were in WA (+22%), SA (+19.5%) and Victoria (+19.3%). Allstates and territories recorded newspaper job ad levels above those of February 2009except Queensland (seas. adj.) (see Table 3).

Internet job advertisements

The number of internet job advertisements grew by 19.6% in February, to average149,831 per week. This was 3.3% lower than in February 2009, but 27.9% above theJuly 2009 cyclical low point (seasonally adjusted) (see Table 4).

ANZ Chief Economist Warren Hogan said:

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This month’s growth suggests January’s decline was probably just a seasonalanomaly. Total job advertisements are continuing to improve month on monthfrom their cyclical low point last year. This has already translated into solidemployment growth and reduced unemployment, even through a period of relatively strong labour force growth.

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Total employment in the Australian economy reached a record high of 10.966million jobs in January 2010 (+1.7% YoY). A massive 194,600 jobs have beenadded to the labour market over the last five months (96,000 of them full-time),while 147,800 additional people joined the labour force.

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Even better, the unemployment rate has now been falling since it peaked at 5.8%in June and July 2009. This peak was well below the 6%+ unemployment ratesthat were widely feared earlier this year. We expect the unemployment rate willease down from here.

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However, a record 30.2% of all jobs are now part-time (less than 35 hours perweek) and despite the big surge in employed people, total aggregate hoursworked across the economy remains near the level it was a year ago. Thisindicates a significant degree of spare capacity (or ‘under-employment’) still existsamong current employees in terms of their potential to increase their work hours.Indeed, the latest ABS survey of under-employment (November 2009) indicatesthat a relatively high 7.8% of the labour force may be regarded as currentlyunder-employed (that is, they are currently employed but are willing and able towork more hours). This ‘under-employment’ rate appears to have stabilised and isexpected to fall in 2010, as business confidence and labour demand gain strength.

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In the near term, the forward indicators appear positive for more employmentgrowth through the first half of 2010, although probably at a slower pace thanseen over the past four months. The ANZ (and other) job ads surveys areimproving, albeit at a softening pace, retail sales turnover appears to be holdingup well in the ‘post-stimulus’ period (retail trade is currently Australia’s secondlargest employing sector, just behind health services), business investment andconstruction are regrouping, and business sentiment and expectations remainrelatively strong.

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The ABS’ February

Labour Force

report, due Thursday 11 March, is likely toconfirm this expectation, with another rise in total employment. With the labourforce now growing by an average of 30,000 per month (average for the last fivemonths), we will need to see net jobs growth of at least 30,000 in February inorder to see a further immediate improvement in the number of unemployed or tomove the unemployment rate from its current 5.3% (seas. adj.). Given the recentstellar performance of the labour market and the positive nature of currentforward indicators of labour demand, we expect Australia can achieve 30,000 netnew jobs this month. This would keep the unemployment rate stable at 5.3%.

For further comment contact: For distribution enquiries contact:

Warren Hogan Julie Toth Vanessa O’Shaughnessy

Chief Economist Senior Economist Media Relations ManagerTel: 0414 498 675 Tel: 03 9273 6252 Tel: (03) 8654 3651Email: Warren.Hogan@anz.com Email: Julie.Toth@anz.com Email:Oshaughv@anz.com

Next release:

Mar 2010

Expected release date:

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Note for editors:

For some of the newspapers surveyed, the ANZ Job Advertisements series counts the number of advertisement ‘bookings’. Each ‘booking’ may contain multiple advertisements. In addition, the ANZ series counts classifiedadvertisements only, and does not include display advertisements. For these reasons, it would be incorrect todraw any inference or correlation from the ANZ series regarding advertising volumes or revenues fromemployment advertising in the newspapers surveyed. The ANZ series is not intended to, and should not, beused to assess the financial performance of any of the newspapers included in it.

Job Advertisements Series

Monthly growth in newspaper job advertisements and employment

-60-40-2002040608082 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 10-6-4-202468

% change from year earlier(seasonally adjusted)Newspaper job ads, 6months forward (left)% change from year earlier(seasonally adjusted)Employment (right)

Annual change in newspaper, internetand total job advertisements