Australia job vacancies fall 1.1% in May quarter

Workers are reflected in an office building's windows in Sydney's Barangaroo business district in Australia's largest city, May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Job vacancies in Australia slipped 1.1% in the three months ended May, the first fall since early 2016, in yet another sign the country's economy is losing momentum.

Australia's labour market was a rare bright spot for its A$1.9 trillion economy. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has often cited the strength of vacancies as a major reason for its optimism that continued jobs growth would spark wage inflation.

Total job vacancies eased a seasonally adjusted 1.1% to 241,500 in the March-May quarter, from the previous quarter, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday.

Customers at a local cafe are seen through a window displaying a job vacancy notice in central Sydney, Australia, May 9, 2016. Picture taken May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Steven Saphore

That was the first negative reading since February 2016.

Vacancies in the private sector fell 1.6% to 219,400 after hitting a record high in the previous quarter. The public sector saw vacancies jumped 3.8% to 22,100.

Analysts value the vacancies series as it has proved a reliable leading indicator of labour demand and turning points in employment growth.

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Sam Holmes)