Businesses’ hiring intentions turn negative
The jobs market is showing more signs of turning south. More businesses plan to reduce staff numbers than take on additional workers over the next 12 months, according to ANZ’S latest monthly business confidence survey.
A net 4% of employers told the bank they expected to reduce the size of their work force, which the bank said was the first time responses had drifted into negative territory since October 2020.
The survey was conducted too early in the month to be significantly affected by a hawkish monetary policy statement by the Reserve Bank last week, or comments from its governor, Adrian Orr, that the central bank would deliberately engineer a recession.
ANZ said the Reserve Bank had ‘‘leapfrogged everyone with their hawkishness’’ and described the upward revision to its domestic inflation forecast as ‘‘startling’’.
ANZ’S business confidence survey showed pockets of confidence in the economic outlook were drying up and the bank said confidence in the outlook for housing construction had ‘‘tanked’’.
A net 57% expected economic conditions to deteriorate in the year ahead, from a net 42% last month, while a net 11% were pessimistic about their own outlook.