By Annie Dang

The legal sector is looking up with job advertisements rebounding in May. 

Australia’s employment market is on the mend with the number of job ads in online and print increasing to an average of 167,633 ads per week, according to the recent ANZ Job Advertisements Series survey.

ANZ senior economist Katie Dean says the 21.7% (seasonally adjusted) annual increase on last year suggests Australia is moving towards a “bright future” across all industries including the legal sector. “It is expected that professional services will accelerate a little faster than the average over the next year, as profiting in Australian firms continue to rebound after a fairly subdued in 2009,” said Dean. 

[Australia] will also see an increase in discretionary spend as well as the potential increase in legal activity particularly in the area of corporate law, such as increases in M&A activity. We could expect greater activity in corporate law based as corporate profiting continues to improve,” she said.

The survey showed internet job advertisements rose 5% in May, the fastest annual growth seen since April 2008 and contributing to a 22.3% annual increase. Job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers fell 6.5% over the same period, the biggest fall seen since January 2010.

The difference between growth in online and print jobs advertisements reflects varying trends across different sectors. Higher growth in online advertising suggests greater job demand for the legal sector, as online ads are tends to be concentrated in professional services, said Dean.

“If we see online ads moving differently to newspapers, it suggests that there might be different trends between sectors. The fact that online advertising has been very strong does certainly suggest that professional services in areas such as law have good employment prospects at the moment,” she said.

While the slowdown in newspaper job advertising growth implies some impending moderation in Australia’s recent strong employment growth, the overall outlook appears bright.Unemployment is expected to  gradually ease throughout the course of 2010, and may dip below 5% by the end of the year, as national income receives a sizeable boost from the sharply higher terms of trade which should support ongoing jobs growth, said Dean.