The Australian job market is not doing at all well; the number of vacant jobs is declining which of course is making it much harder for people to find work. A comprehensive ABS national survey of vacancies revealed that job vacancies fell 8% in the past year.
The most dramatic slide has been in public sector vacancies. Recently elected state governments have cut public service employment to long-term lows. There were just 3,100 public vacancies in NSW – the fewest since 1996; 2,900 in Victoria, the weakest since 2003; and 2,100 in Queensland, the weakest since 1999. Queensland has 29% fewer vacancies than it had a year ago and 65% fewer public service vacancies. Tasmania is the worse state in which to be searching for a job; the West Australian and Northern Territory labour markets remain Australia’s healthiest.
Private sector vacancies have fallen 9% in the past year. The biggest slides are in tourism, transport, mining, and manufacturing. There are fewer manufacturing jobs on offer than at any time in the past decade.
The most recent National Australia Bank business confidence survey, released in December 2012, showed business confidence at its weakest since 2009. More businesses planned to cut rather than to increase employment.
Source: smh.com.au January 10, 2013
Cheers,
Annie Cerone
