Job vacancies jumped 5.3 per cent to 190,200 in seasonally adjusted terms in the three months to end November, in a promising sign for further solid employment growth.
Vacancies were a hefty 26.3 per cent higher than the same period of 2009, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.
Job vacancies in the private sector rose an adjusted 5.5 per cent in the quarter to 172,500, while those in the public sector increased by 4.0 per cent to 17,700.
Analysts value the vacancies series highly as it has proved a very good leading indicator of labour demand and turning points in employment.
The official labour report for December is due tomorrow and analysts are expecting another solid rise of 25,000 in employment, nudging the jobless rate down to 5.1 per cent from 5.2 per cent the previous month.