Fewer jobs advertised across the ditch

Australia may no longer be an employment 'mecca', where expat Kiwis can easily and quickly expect to find a job.

Australian newspaper job advertisements levels have dropped for the first time in six months.

ANZ's December survey found the number of job ads in major Australian metropolitan newspapers fell by a seasonally adjusted 2.4 per cent to an average of 20,508 per week, following a 0.4 per cent increase in November.

Newspaper job ads are now 9.5 per cent lower than a year ago.

The fall in newspaper job ads was driven by declines in all states, with the exception of Queensland and South Australia, which both increased by four per cent.

Job advertisements fell the most in the ACT, by 8.7 per cent, followed by Victoria which decreased by 6.3 per cent, while NSW fell four per cent.

ANZ head of Australian economics Tony Pearson said the best official guide to the performance of the labour market is provided by the trend data.

"This shows that employment growth decelerated all through 2005 to the point where there has been no growth at all over the last three months," he said.

"The employment rate, which has shown a pleasing decline through 2004, has essentially shown no further improvement in 2005.

"These trends towards a stabilisation in the jobs market in 2005 were consistent with the softening in the ANZ job ad series."

In trend terms, the number of job ads rose by 0.1 per cent in December.

Meanwhile, the ANZ survey showed the number of internet job ads grew by 4.6 per cent in December to an average of 153,169 per week, following a 4.2 per cent rise in November.

The total number of job ads in both newspapers and the internet rose by 3.7 per cent to an average of 173,677 per week.

Mr Pearson said demand for labour will remain robust and jobs will be plentiful.

- AAP