SYDNEY: Job vacancies in Australia have risen for a third straight quarter to hit the highest since May 2011, data showed on Thursday, a promising omen for a much-needed pick-up in labour demand. Total job vacancies increased 1.8 per cent to 185,600 seasonally adjusted in the December-February quarter, from 182,400 in the three months to November. Vacancies were 7.3 per cent higher than in the same period of 2016, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed. That was welcome news because employment growth has been disappointingly sluggish for some time and heavily skewed to part-time work.
Vacancies in the private sector climbed 1.5 per cent to 167,500, again the highest since mid 2011. That was up 6.4 per cent on the February quarter of 2016. Public sector vacancies rose four per cent in the quarter to 18,100, the highest reading since 2009. Analysts value the vacancies series because it has proved a reliable leading indicator of labour demand and turning points in employment growth.
