Job ads rise by 6pc in Aussie newspapers

The number of jobs advertised in Australia in major newspapers and online rose by 6 per cent in December, the strongest monthly growth in 2 years.

Overall job ads averaged 149,063 a week, with newspaper job ads rising by 11.6 per cent and internet job ads increasing by 5.6 per cent, an ANZ survey shows.

The rise in December follows a 5.2 per cent increase the month before and it was the strongest monthly growth since May 2007.

ANZ acting chief economist Warren Hogan said total job advertisements had recovered from the recent low in July 2009 as they continued to improve each month.

"This is already translating into employment growth and helping to keep the unemployment rate relatively stable, despite accelerating population and labour force growth," Hogan said.

"This sustained improvement in job advertisements and actual employment has come relatively early in this economic recovery cycle, indicating the mildness of the downturn Australia has experienced over the past 18 months." The report comes ahead of labour force figures for December from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

Hogan forecasts the job market to continue to improve.

"The ANZ [and other] job ads surveys are improving rapidly, retail sales turnover grew strongly in November [retail trade is currently Australia's second-largest employing sector, behind health services], business investment and construction are regrouping, and three industry surveys [manufacturing, services and construction] all indicated net expansion of employment in December."

- AAP