SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet fell in November, the third fall in the past four months, underscoring a softening labour market despite three interest rate cuts this year.
Monday's figures from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group <ANZ.AX> showed total job advertisements slipped a seasonally adjusted 1.7% in November, following a 1.0% drop in October.
Job ads averaged 153,260 daily on websites a week, and were 12.6% lower than in November last year. Annual growth has been in negative territory since the start of this year.
The ANZ vacancies series is closely watched by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) given it counts actual job ads, while Australian Bureau of Statistics data is based on more tenuous intentions by firms to hire.
The RBA has cut its cash rate to a record low of 0.75% in recent months in part as a response to a rising unemployment rate.
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
