ABS Updates: Job Vacancies and Building Approvals Data Get Better

The latest statistics reveal that the dwelling approvals bounced back strongly in November, observing a significant month-on-month rise of 11.8 per cent in November 2019. In addition, the number of job vacancies also improved by 1.6 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms in November 2019 quarter.

The country’s job vacancies data support the recent unemployment figures announced by the ABS, that showed a fall in the unemployment rate to 5.2 per cent in November 2019. The unexpected decline in the unemployment rate validated the RBA’s decision to put a hold on interest rates in the near-term.

The fall in the unemployment rate was backed by a surge of 39,900 persons in seasonally adjusted employment, with a rise of 35,700 people in part-time employment and 4,200 people in full-time employment.

Though these figures signal an improvement in the country’s labour market situation, the raging bushfires are providing a gloomy outlook for the market. The devastating bushfires led to a significant fall of 6.7 per cent in the job advertisements in December 2019, reported Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX:ANZ).

Job Vacancies Improves Considerably in November 2019 Quarter

ABS reported 239,400 job vacancies in Australia during the November quarter relative to 235,600 jobs in August quarter 2019 in seasonally adjusted terms.

On a quarter-on-quarter (QOQ) basis, the seasonally adjusted job vacancies rose by 1.6 per cent in November quarter. Although, the figure fell by 0.9 per cent relative to November 2018 quarter.

In addition, the private sector and public sector observed a Q-o-Q rise of 1.5 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively in job vacancies in seasonally adjusted terms during the November quarter 2019.

However, in trend terms, the job vacancies dip by 0.4 per cent in the November 2019 quarter relative to the August quarter and 2.3 per cent over the year to November quarter.

Take a look at state-wise data on job vacancies in original series terms for the November quarter below:

State-wise data indicates that job vacancies fell significantly by 19.2 per cent in Northern Territory in November quarter compared to August quarter, followed by Western Australia (2.3 per cent down), Tasmania (1.9 per cent down) and Victoria (1.4 per cent down). While, NSW recorded the highest uptick of 9.8%.

The positive job vacancies figures for November quarter reflected that some Australian businesses are bringing forward recruitment to November from February.

Australia Records Strong Growth in Dwelling Approvals in November 2019

ABS recorded a substantial rise of 11.8 per cent in dwelling approvals in November 2019, which was driven by an increase of 22.6 per cent in approvals for private dwellings excluding houses in seasonally adjusted terms.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector houses also marked a rise of 6.1 per cent in November.

In trend terms, the number of dwellings approved improved by 0.8 per cent during the month, also owing to an increase of 2.9 per cent in approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses.

The rise in dwelling approvals outstripped analysts’ expectations, that were just expecting an increase of about 2 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms. The increase in November dwelling approvals was a complete turnaround from October’s data when approvals slipped 8.1 per cent.

Although the number of dwelling approved increased in November, the value of total building approved fell by 6.5 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms.

Market experts are of the opinion that an improvement in building approvals in November is consistent with other housing market indicators, including property prices that increased substantially in September quarter 2019.

Despite the recent improvement in statistics of economic indicators, the market experts continue to anticipate a fall in interest rate in February 2020. Moreover, experts expect dwelling approvals to respond slowly to the RBA rate cuts and foresee an eventual rise in non-high-rise building approvals by mid-2020.

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