Internet Job Ads Fall But Hope On Horizon
Illawarra Mercury
Monday January 6, 2003
AUSTRALIA'S job market may have softened in December but the fall was much less than in past Christmas seasons, according to a key employment index released yesterday.
The Olivier Internet Job Index fell 8.2 per cent during the final month of 2002, recording 4780 fewer Australian jobs advertised on the Internet than in the previous month.
Olivier Recruitment Group director Robert Olivier said although the index was in a four-month decline, the December seasonal fall was nowhere near as bad as the previous two years.
``This is the traditional summer trough between waves of job growth. Employment opportunities may have bottomed out but they'll swell again," Mr Olivier said.
``The question is when it peaks and how high the swell will get.
``For job seekers in 2003, it's a question of heading in the right direction and getting ready to ride the wave."
The Olivier Internet Job index fell 27.3 per cent in December 2001 and 17.7 per cent in December 2000.
Compared with these levels, the 8.2per cent drop was ``historically a good figure for this time of year", Mr Olivier said.
And while the index recorded a fall of 15.4 per cent over the past six months there was a 14 per cent increase in the number of jobs advertised in the 12 months to January 1, 2003.
A total of 20 out of the 21 job sectors recorded a drop in job advertisements in December.
The exception was the insurance and superannuation sector, posting a modest 3.3 per cent gain.
Hospitality and tourism jobs fell 22.8per cent.
Arts and entertainment and science jobs also dropped considerably, after experiencing substantial gains in November.
The biggest gain in 2002 was in the building and construction sector, for which the number of job advertisements jumped 80.5 per cent.
The engineering and mining sector improved by 57.9 per cent and banking was up 58.3 per cent for the year.
Accounting dominated last month's job advertisements, with 17.7 per cent of all jobs on the Net for accounting-relate industries.
Sales and marketing were also big, making up 11.47 per cent of all advertisements while information technology had 10.26 per cent.
The Olivier Internet Job Index surveyed 53,756 position vacant ads on commercial sites in December and analysed them by state and industry.
© 2003 Illawarra Mercury
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