SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian job advertisements rose for a fifth straight month in July, suggesting a strong pick up in employment seen in recent months could run for a while yet.
A monthly survey by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group <ANZ.AX> released on Monday showed total job advertisements increased by 1.5 percent in July, from June when they rose 2.7 percent.
Ads of 177,879 were up 12.8 percent on July last year and at their highest since 2011.
After sharp increases in employment from March to June, the government measure has finally caught up with the strength seen in ads and nudged the jobless rate down to 5.6 percent.
“Recent data has shown a clear improvement in labour market conditions consistent with elevated business conditions, profitability and capacity utilisation," said David Plank, ANZ's head of Australian economics.
He estimated that leading indicators, including job ads, pointed to jobs growth of 15,000 to 20,000 per month in the near term.
However, Plank also saw hurdles ahead for the labour market.
Underutilisation rates were high with people working less hours than they wanted, wage growth was sluggish and the main drivers of economic growth were less labour-intensive than in the past, said Plank.
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
