The total number of job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet rose 1.0% in seasonally adjusted terms in April from March, ANZ Bank said.

Over the year, total jobs ads were 20.5% higher. The number of Internet job advertisements rose 1.2% in the same period, contributing to an annual increase of 22.2% in seasonally adjusted terms.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said it will have to tighten monetary policy further at some point as it ramped up its core inflation forecasts for coming years predicting that rising energy, food and living costs and an airtight labour market will combine to stoke price pressures.

In its May statement on monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of Australia forecast core inflation to be right at the top of its 2%-3% target band from the end of 2011 through 2012 and 2013 before reaching 3.25% at the end of 2013.

Australian retail sales fell 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted $20.46bn in March from $20.55bn in February and rose from $20.00bn a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

Economists surveyed ahead of the announcement on average had expected a 0.5% rise in sales for March. Sales had risen 0.8% in February on month.