Job ads reveal 'fairly tepid' labour market

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A mildly declining trend in job advertisements suggests a fairly tepid labour market, ANZ says.

ANZ's job ads indicator, which combines newspaper and internet ads, fell 2 per cent last month, seasonally adjusted, following a 0.9 per cent fall in March.

The decline was driven by internet listings. Job ads in newspapers rose 3.5 per cent.

"Our composite total, which weights newspaper ads more heavily to give a better indicator for the unemployment rates, rose 0.1 per cent, failing to recover from March's 3.6 per cent fall," ANZ economist Sharon Zollner said.

"With internet, newspaper, and total job listings see-sawing over recent months, the clearest trend appears to be the lack of one, which in itself suggests a fairly tepid labour market."

Overall the data were consistent with an unemployment rate hovering around the 6.5 per cent mark, give or take 0.3 percentage points, over the next six months, she said.

Christchurch remains the strongest of the main centres.

"In both Auckland and Wellington newspaper job ads rose but internet job ads fell. Both centres have a mildly declining trend [in] job ads."

Meanwhile, the Department of Labour, which monitors online job ads only, also reported declines - 2.4 per cent overall and 3.1 per cent for skilled jobs.