Australian Job Ads Keep Climbing Despite Rate Hikes

Australia's job ads continued their upward trend in August, rising 2.5% for the fourth consecutive month.

This increase comes despite the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raising interest rates to 4.35% to curb hiring and inflation.

According to the ANZ-Indeed job ads series, postings were 7.8% higher than a year earlier and 21.4% above their decade-long average, even with unemployment at 4.5%.

The data suggests that labor demand remains stronger than policymakers would like, which could lead to firmer wage growth and slower cooling of service-sector prices.