Australian Job Ads Rise for Fourth Straight Month Amid Interest Rate Hikes

The Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate hikes have not affected the labour market in Australia. According to private-sector data, job advertisements rose for a fourth straight month in August, by 2.5% from July. This suggests that labour demand remains healthy despite higher borrowing costs.

The number of job ads increased modestly due to Christmas-related hiring, with a surge in retail and food service roles. However, tech-related ads continued to ease, with demand in software development, data, and analytics falling.

Jasmine Zheng, a senior economist at ANZ, expects economic momentum to soften over the coming months as higher interest rates continue to restrain demand. She anticipates that Job Ads will gradually trend lower, but the rise in unemployment rate is expected to be modest.