Job advertising finally showed a decent lift in July with the sum of newspaper and internet advertisements rising a seasonally adjusted 3.5%, ANZ senior economist Sharon Zollner said yesterday.
The ANZ New Zealand Job Ads series was 4.5% higher than a year ago.
The growth reflected a 2.3% monthly increase in internet advertisements, bolstered by an 11% lift in newspaper advertising. The level of internet advertisements was 5.9% higher than a year ago.
The regional numbers were volatile, she said.
Internet advertisements rose in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and newspaper advertising increased in four of seven regions, including Otago.
The Otago Daily Times contributes to the series.
In two of the three regions experiencing falls in news-paper advertising, it was off a strong lift the month before.
''As job ads had signalled, there was indeed a small recoil in the unemployment rate in the second quarter from its sharp fall in the first three months of the year,'' Ms Zollner said.
For a longer historical perspective, ANZ calculated a composite weighted job ads series which gave newspaper advertising a larger weight.
The composite measure rose 5.3% in July after falling in the previous two months.
The annual change in the three-month average was holding steady at around zero, she said.
''Given the unemployment rate averaged a touch over 7% in the middle quarters of 2012, this would, on the face of it, suggest the unemployment rate will continue to rise from the current 6.4% back towards 7%.''
However, the unemployment rate had been so volatile lately, the ANZ preferred to focus on the thematic of an ongoing but regrettably sluggish labour market, Ms Zollner said.
