Strong jobs growth tipped to continue

THE number of job vacancies has increased, official figures show, and the results suggest strong job growth will continue, a leading economist says.

Employers were seeking to fill 203,700 positions last month, seasonally adjusted, up 6 per cent from May, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

Most vacancies were in the private sector, up 6.1 per cent to 183,700.

Vacancies in the public sector jumped 5.2 per cent to 20,000.

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Michael Workman said the growing number should mean monthly job gains range from 18,000 to 22,000 over the next few quarters, with 250,000 jobs added over the next year.

“It will add to the already robust jobs growth of 325,000 over the year to August,” he said.

Mr Workman said that should be enough to keep downward pressure on the unemployment rate, given the very gradual downward trend in the workforce participation rate as the population ages.

He expects the unemployment rate to be about 5.4 per cent by the end of the year, falling from 5.6 per cent now.

Mr Workman said vacancies have continued to trend higher for the mining sector due to higher iron ore prices.

“It is a consequence of higher bulk commodity prices which have lifted profitability, enabling more skilled labour to be utilised to maximise productive capacity,” Mr Workman said.