Australian job vacancies appear to be soaring at the moment, as competition among employers for workers strengthens.
A study released this morning by ANZ shows that job ads rose 8.4 per cent, to 228,170 advertised positions across February, halting a decline over December and January caused by a surge of Omicron cases.
These February figures mark a massive 46.3 per cent jump from January, 2020, just before COVID-19 took ahold.
“The February increase reinforces the view we expressed last month that job ads hadn’t yet peaked with labor demand continuing to grow and job-switching expected to rise,” said Catherine Birch, a senior economist at ANZ.
“We now forecast the unemployment rate to fall to the low 3s by late 2022.
“As such, competition for labor is likely to remain elevated.
“Given our upgraded labor market outlook, the shift in bargaining power towards employees and higher inflation expectations, we should see wage growth accelerate convincingly through 2022.”
