Australia Job Advertisements Rise Most in 2 1/2 Years

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Australian advertisements for job vacancies surged by the most in 2 1/2 years, adding to signs the nation’s economy is strengthening enough for the central bank to boost borrowing costs for a fourth straight meeting next month.

Jobs advertised in newspapers and on the Internet gained 6 percent in December, according to an Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. report released in Melbourne today. Advertisements were 22.6 percent lower than a year earlier.

Unemployment fell in November amid the biggest three-month surge in hiring in three years as companies such as Chevron Corp. expand liquefied natural gas ventures in Western Australia to meeting rising global demand for energy. Traders predict central bank Governor Glenn Stevens will raise borrowing costs by early March after boosting the benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point on Dec. 1 to 3.75 percent.

Job advertisements “are now well past the low reached in July 2009 and are continuing to improve month on month,” said Warren Hogan, chief economist at ANZ Bank in Sydney. “This is already translating into employment growth.”

Employers added 99,500 new jobs in the three months through November, cutting the jobless rate to 5.7 percent from 5.8 percent in October. Employers added another 10,000 jobs last month, according to the median estimate of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of a Jan. 14 government report.

Consumer Confidence

The Australian dollar traded at 93.06 U.S. cents at 11:35 a.m. in Sydney from 93.03 cents just before the report was released. The two-year government bond yield rose 1 basis point to 4.53 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Rising employment has helped boost consumer confidence, spurring household spending that accounts for more than half of the economy.

Retail sales jumped 1.4 percent in November from October, a report showed on Jan. 7. The gain was almost five times the median forecast of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, and prompted Gerry Harvey, the billionaire chairman of the nation’s largest electronics seller, to say Australia’s economy is heading for its “next big boom.”

Strengthening economic growth increases pressure on Governor Stevens to raise the overnight cash rate target, which he slashed to a half-century low of 3 percent in April to cushion the economy against the global recession.

Rate Outlook

Stevens boosted the rate by a quarter point in October, November and last month.

Investors are betting there is a 58 percent chance of a quarter-point increase in the benchmark rate to 4 percent at the central bank’s next meeting on Feb. 2, according to Bloomberg calculations based on interbank futures on the Sydney Futures Exchange at 11:37 a.m. Chances of a quarter-point move in March are at 100 percent.

National vacancies advertised in newspapers and on the Internet averaged 149,063 a week last month, today’s report showed. Newspaper advertisements surged 11.6 percent to an average 10,631 a week. Internet notices gained 5.6 percent to 138,432.