Job advertisements soar 5.2% in October, Construction sector still struggling: Economy Roundup

The number of job advertisements posted during November has risen by 5.2%, according to the latest figures from the ANZ job advertisements survey.

The figures show total job ads rose to a weekly average of 140,658, a rebound from October’s 1.7% decline to 133,709. Major newspaper advertisements rose by 8.3%, with internet advertisements also increasing by 5%.

Total job advertisements are now 12.3% higher than their low point in July 2009, but they are still 34% lower than at this time 12 months ago.

Paper advertisements rose to an average of 9,530 per week, but are still 18.7% lower than one year ago. Additionally, internet advertisements grew to an average of 131,128 per week, but are still 35.1% lower than 12 months ago.

Acting chief economist Warren Hogan said in a statement the job advertisements market has now passed its low point and is on the way to recovery.

“The 8.3% lift in newspaper job advertising in November is particularly encouraging, given that this sector tends to ‘lead’ overall job advertising trends.”

“Eventually the improvement in job advertising will translate into higher employment growth,” he said. “Taken together, this data implies that Australia’s recovery from the recent downturn is gathering pace.”

The figures have boosted hope for a positive result for official employment data, which is set to be revealed on Thursday by the Bureau of Statistics. However, Hogan said the labour market is still under pressure.

“All of the net job additions have been in part-time not full-time jobs (full-time jobs have fallen by 10.4k and part-time jobs have grown by 85.5k since June) and total hours worked has only recently stabilised (in trend terms). This indicates that the net addition in headcount in recent months is telling us only part of the labour market story, with actual demand still proving to be soft.”

“In the near-term, we expect weak employment growth over the summer months. If total hours worked picks up pace, then more of these jobs will be full-time. But even with this jobs growth, continuing labour force growth will still see a further increase in the national unemployment rate, probably to around 6.5% in mid-2010.”

Meanwhile, activity in the construction industry has fallen in November due to a decline in the number of flats being constructed, as well as less work in the engineering industry.

The Australian Industry Group-Housing Industry Association performance of construction index fell by 3.3 points to 47.6 points – below the 50-point level separating expansion and contraction.

“The survey results reaffirm the fragile state of current conditions in the construction industry, which has slipped back from the tentative signs of recovery seen during the previous two months,” AIG director of public policy Peter Burn said in a statement.

“Encouragingly, the housing sector has continued to grow, although the rate of improvement appears to have slowed over the past two months due to a weakening in first home buyer activity.”

Burn said the three consecutive rate rises made by the Reserve Bank of Australia are now likely to impact the amount of growth in the market over the next few months.

Chevon secures $90 billion supply agreement for Wheatstone gas

It’s been a big few days in the energy industry, with US giant Chevron securing a $90 billion supply agreement with Tokyo Electric Power Company for the Wheatsone LPG project in WA.

The Japanese utility will now take an annual delivery of 4.1 million tonnes of LNG for up to 20 years from Wheatstone, and a 15% equity stake in all the licenses in the project.

While both companies have not released financial details of the agreement, it is reportedly worth $90 billion. WA premier Colin Barnett said over the weekend that amount would be “historic”.

“In my judgement that would be the largest sales contract for any Australian export industry – this is an historic agreement.”

Chevron Australia managing director Roy Krzywosinski told The Australian the deal is a positive one, with production to start in 2016.

“For Wheatstone it’s all good news – we’ve got the gas, we’ve now got the market and we’ve got partner alignment to move the project forward,” he said.

Also in the industry, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have signed an iron ore joint venture agreement worth $US116 billion which will see them combine forces.

The deal has reportedly upset customers in China, and faces regulatory approvals due to concerns about the two giants’ dominance of the market.

The deal was begun in June, but finalised over the weekend with agreements signed by both companies. The completion of the deal is expected late next year, and no payments have been confirmed.

The plan will see each company take a 50% share in the combined WA iron ore assets, but each entity will continue to operate on its own. Both Rio and BHP said each expected to save about $US10 billion a year as a result of the project.

Shares weak after overseas leads

The Australian sharemarket has opened slightly higher today after good results from overseas markets in Europe and the US, but has remained flat in morning trade.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 15 points or 0.32% to 4687.2 at 12.00 AEST, while the Australian dollar has fallen slightly to US91c.

Commonwealth Bank shares gained 0.6% to $54.26, while ANZ shares also gained 0.6% to $22.11. Westpac rose 0.5% to $24.15, as AMP lifted 1.3% to $6.23.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris has told The Age that the latest mortgage rate rises are only the beginning if new liquidity rules are passed.

”New liquidity rule requirements will have potentially two impacts,” he said. ”One will be interest rates continuing to increase at a faster rate than the official cash rates, and secondly, the issue around the availability (of funds).”

His comments come after the big four banks lifted mortgage rates in response to a 25-basis point rise by the Reserve Bank of Australia last week.

Also in the banking sector, Westpac has announced a restructuring of its executive team. Chief executive Gail Kelly announced retail and business banking head Peter Hanlon will become group executive of people and transformation, replaced by BT Financial Group chief executive Rob Coombe.

Additionally, Brad Cooper will take Coombe’s place at BT Financial.

“Over the past 18 months, we have greatly improved our Westpac retail and business banking distribution platform, including introducing Westpac Local,” Kelly said in a statement.

“We have established a multi-brand business model with the successful merger with St George, and we have built a strong one team culture… The next phase of our transformation lies in significantly strengthening our focus on customers, people and productivity.”

Fortescue still bids for rail access

As reported in the Australian Financial Review, iron ore giant Fortescue Metals is looking to strengthen its arguments for ordering access to the Rio Tinto Pilbara rail network. The company is expected to announce an upgrade to its Solomon project this week, a project that would require train access.

Babcock & Brown Power has now settled about $444 million in debts and fees owed to Babcock & Brown International Group. Additionally, it has issued 80.73 million shares to International Group, and has sold its interests in the Oakey Power station.

“These arrangements represent a circa 80% reduction in the debt and fees outstanding to the Babcock & Brown International Group,” BBP said in a statement. “Clearly this is a very considerable reduction, which the BBP Directors believe represents a fair outcome for security holders.”

Overseas, World Bank chief economist Justin Lin has warned countries not to finalise their stimulus payment strategies, urging activity to continue until 2012. He said full global recovery from the economic downturn is set to occur in 2013, and government should continue their stimulus payments until that time.

“At this stage, it is more important to talk about how to improve the quality of fiscal stimulus, use the money in a way that can enhance the growth in the future,” Lin told Reuters. “If they can do that – the debt is building up but with growth enhanced in the future – they can pay back the debt.”