Latest job advertisement figures show encouraging signs for the Australian economy and job seekers. Both the Advantage Job Index and ANZ Advertisement Series report significant increases for the month of February after a poorer than expected January result.

According to the Advantage Index, which measures online ads only, there was a 6.08% spike in advertisements in February, while the ANZ figures report a 1.2% increase across both newspaper and online job advertisements. Compared to last year the ANZ figures represent a 19.4% increase.

The strong job ad growth supports market concerns that there is a looming skills shortage in Australia. The legal industry was one of the leading sectors to post an increase in job advertisements in February. According to Advantage the sector posted a 9.58% increase, making it the fifth best performing industry across Australia. “We haven’t seen a national increase this large for over three years,” said Bob Olivier, director, global market intelligence, Advantage Resourcing. “We were concerned with the declines experienced in December and January but these can be attributed to many factors including November’s rate rise, poor retail sales over Christmas and the natural disasters. February gives us a much clearer picture moving forward of employer confidence in a more stable environment,” added Olivier. 

The graduate market is also bouncing back with a 21.6% increase from January, according to Advantage figures. This is the first time it has recorded such an increase in 18 months. Industries are significantly increasing their search for graduates include management consulting, legal, human resources, manufacturing and the public sector.