Australian employment advertising fell for the 12th month in succession in April, signalling more pain ahead in the job market as unemployment likely races higher over coming months.
Total job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet fell a seasonally-adjusted 7.5% in April, contributing to a 49.9% annual decline, its largest decline on record, according to a survey by ANZ Bank.
The good times continued in April for the Australian sharemarket.
The All Ordinaries Index closed April 6.0% higher at 3,744.7 points. While global shares experienced the best monthly result for two decades.
Stabilising, and in some cases, improving economic data, led by consumer sentiment, housing and business sentiment, were the major economic drivers of Australian and global markets over the month.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has confirmed that the government won't extend a temporary hike to federal grants for first-time home buyers beyond the middle of 2009, despite signs the measure has led to an uptick in housing activity.
The decision withdraws a key lifeline underpinning new housing development in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1??> Australia, likely disappointing some industry commentators who had hoped it would be extended.
Australia's core inflation rate remained stubbornly high in the March quarter but is unlikely to sway the central bank from any plans to continue easing monetary policy as it looks to head off the effects slowing global growth.
Australia has joined its global peers in recession but the long-term prospects for growth remain sound as the economy should emerge from the contraction in better shape than most, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said.
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Unemployment in Australia rose to its highest level in five years in March as the full force of the global financial crisis hit home, prompting employers to rapidly accelerate job shedding. Unemployment rose to a seasonally adjusted 5.7% in March from 5.2% in February, its highest level since February 2004. The number of employed fell 34,700, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. It was the biggest one-month rise in unemployment in eight years. Economists on average had expected an unemployment rate of 5.4% in March, with the number of employed down 25,000.
The Australian Government in a surprise move said it plans to back a $43bn national high speed broadband network, with investment from the private sector, after the global financial crisis decimated any hope of a single private company completing the project. The Government said it will set up a new majority-owned company to build a high speed, fibre-to-the-premises network, but said it wants investment from the private sector.
The Reserve Bank of Australia fine tuned monetary policy by cutting interest rates a further one quarter of a percentage point to a 49-year low, saying the economy is contracting, but at a slower pace than other major economies. Despite lowering its cash rate target to 3.00%, the central bank indicated a more neutral policy stance and said there are tentative signs of improvement in the world economy, including in China, Australia's largest trading partner.
The High Court Of Australia rejected a legal challenge to the government's proposed fiscal stimulus package, clearing the way for cash payments to begin. Bryan Pape, a former lawyer and university lecturer, had argued in the High Court in Canberra that plans by the government to roll out one-off cash bonuses of up to $900 each to Australian taxpayers is in breach of the constitution. The court ruled the payment of the tax bonus under the Bonus Act is "a valid law of the Commonwealth."