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Staff Reporter
If the Reserve Bank cuts the official cash rate later today, few industry economists will be surprised, as new figures show the number of job advertisements online and in the newspapers fell 4.6 per cent in September.
According to ANZ’s latest job advertisement series, this is the seventh consecutive monthly decline. Job advertisements are now 15 per cent below levels seen in October 2011.
ANZ’s head of Australian economics and property research Ivan Colhoun said this continuing upward pressure on the unemployment rate will no doubt force the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates further.
“While we pushed back our previous expectation of the next rate cut to December after the higher-than-expected Q3 CPI, a move on Melbourne Cup Day would not surprise,” Mr Colhoun said.
“Interest rates in Australia remain high for many parts of the economy. Further stimulus from monetary policy is likely to be necessary, especially while the Australian dollar remains stubbornly high, in order to ensure that activity in other sectors of the economy picks up to replace the wind down of the mining investment boom from the second half of next year," he said.
