In a sign of rebounding activity in the Australian labor market, job advertisements increased to a 12-year high during the month of March. Latest data released by the ANZ Bank reveals a rise in total job ads by 7.4% MoM in March while February’s increase was also revised higher to 8.8%.

The total number of job ads posted crossed 190k – the highest level seen since November 2008, and were up by 39.7% YoY for the period. The spike in job ads offers some relief to markets even as the Australian government ended its JobKeeper support initiative to offset the damage caused to the labor market due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Senior economist at ANZ Bank, Catherine Birch, shares the following observation about the impact of the ending of the JobKeeper program, “We estimate that 100,000-150,000 people will lose employment, equivalent to 0.8-1.2% of the current workforce. But we think net employment losses will be smaller, as growing labour demand elsewhere should mean many workers find a new job relatively quickly.”

Australia’s economy has shown signs of faster recovery in the wake of the pandemic, with unemployment falling after touching a high of 7.5% in July 2020 to 5.8% by February. The RBA has set a target of bringing the unemployment rate down to 4% or less in order to boost wage growth and inflation in the near future.