Thursday 28 September 2023

Job vacancies plunge to earth

Job vacancies falling

Job vacancies dropped another 9 per cent over the 3 months to August, to be 18 per cent below their highs at 390,000.



Job vacancies were up over the quarter in Queensland, but are now dropping away sharply in New South Wales and Victoria. 


The number of unemployed persons per job vacancy bottomed out at 1 in August 2022, but has now increased to 1.4...so things are normalising quite quickly now. 



In fact as the labour force expands quickly the unemployment rate is already heading to 4½ per cent, and possibly higher in due course. 


Retail turnover also continued in a very weak trend, ensuring that the Reserve Bank will keep interest rates on hold to allow the tightening still in the system to work its way through for a bit longer.