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Published: Monday February 6, 2012 MYT 9:08:00 AM

Australia job advertisements jump 6% in Jan


SYDNEY, Feb 6 (Reuters) Australian job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet climbed 6.0 percent in January, the biggest increase in almost two years and a hopeful sign for a muchneeded pickup in hiring, a survey showed on Monday.

The report by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group showed total job advertisements rose to 191,423 in January in seasonally adjusted terms. That was 0.7 percent higher than the same month last year and the largest number of ads in nine months.

All the increase came in job ads on the internet which climbed 6.4 percent to 183,406 in January from the month before. In contrast, ads in major metropolitan newspapers fell 2.6 percent, following a 3.4 percent rise in December.

"This tentative improvement in job ads is very encouraging and is being driven by acceleration in the mining regions, confirming the awaited significant acceleration in mining investment is now beginning to boost labour demand in these states," said Ivan Colhoun, ANZ head of Australian economics.

A pickup would be welcome as employment growth slowed to a halt last year as sectors such as manufacturing and retail struggled with consumer caution and a high local dollar.

Still, that slowdown also helped contain inflation and allowed the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 4.25 percent.

"Against this local backdrop and that of a persistently weak global economy, we have forecast that the RBA will need to cut interest rates by 25 basis points in Q1, most probably in March," said Colhoun.

Many analysts believe the RBA will move quicker than that and cut at its February policy meeting on Tuesday. The official jobs report for January is due on Feb. 16, and economists generally expect a bounce in employment after a surprise fall of 29,300 in December.

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