Job vacancies continue to grow

THE number of job vacancies in Australia has continued to climb, with new official data showing a concerted rise in job opportunities in both the private and public sectors.

Employers were seeking to fill 220,900 positions in February, up 4.4 per cent from November in seasonally adjusted terms, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

Job vacancies in the private sector rose 4.2 per cent from November, to 201,500, led by rises in the construction, financial services and the professional, scientific and technical industries.

In the key construction sector, job vacancies have now lifted for four of the last five quarterly measurements, while in the three months to February, 3300 new science and technical opportunities arose.

In the public sector, vacancies also lifted in the three months to February, up by 5.8 per cent to 19,500, after falling in the November reading by 7 per cent.

Total job vacancies have now climbed a seasonally adjusted 19.4 per cent on the previous corresponding quarter, with most of those opportunities coming out of Victoria and NSW, as well as West Australia where vacancies have lifted for six consecutive quarters.

The Australian dollar was trading at 76.46 US cents last night after being largely unaffected by the job vacancies data.