The overall Australian job market has “flat lined” over the past month, recording just a 0.14 per cent increase in the number of job ads throughout June, according to the latest Advantage Jobs Index.
The index, formerly known as the Olivier Jobs Index, indicates job ads have recorded decent overall growth across the last 12 months, however the lacklustre June period has been attributed to the recent political shake-up.
Advantage Jobs Index director, Robert Olivier, said that the only slight increase suggests employers are acting with a cautious “wait and see” approach.
“Most of 2010 has seen good growth month-on-month, so this flat line suggests employers are still cautious as speculation of an early election gathers momentum,” Olivier said.
“Even though the RPST [the former Resources Profits Super Tax] debacle has been resolved, employers will now be keeping an anxious eye on a looming Federal election… given the current workplace policies of both the major political parties.”
The information technology industry recorded a 0.3 per cent of job ads nationally throughout June, however, a number of states suffered losses, including SA, WA, QLD and the ACT.
Despite this, the sector has recorded a 36 per cent increase since June 2009, with only the ACT figures down on last year’s.
According to weekly figures, Olivier forecasts July will be no better than June.
“June’s job advertisements started strong but tapered out by the end of the month. If companies don’t come to the market in July with fresh budgets for recruitment in the new financial year we expect another flat month,” Olivier said.
A competing job index from ANZ, recorded a 2.7 per cent increase in the overall job ads – both online and print – with newspaper job ads falling 1.6 per cent throughout June, and Internet job ads climbing three per cent.
Both sets of figures demonstrate the job market has slowed significantly in comparison with Advantage’s May Job Index, which recorded the largest increase for 2010 so far.