SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian job advertisements in newspapers and on the Internet rose for a third straight month in August to hit a 17-month high, offering hope that a recent spike in unemployment might prove temporary.
A survey by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (AX:ANZ) showed total job advertisements rose 1.5 percent to 135,569 per week on average in August. That was the highest average since March last year.
July ads were revised up to show an increase of 0.5 percent while ads were 7.7 percent higher than in August last year.
Ads on the internet rose 1.5 percent in August, while those in newspapers showed a rare increase of 1.8 percent.
"Recent trends in job advertising are consistent with a gradual turnaround in the labour market," said ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan.
"Importantly, these developments appear to jar with the surprise jump in July's unemployment rate to 6.4 percent and suggest recent labour market conditions are steadily improving," he added.
Official employment figures for August are due on Thursday and markets are on edge after the July report showed unemployment unexpectedly spiking to a 12-year peak of 6.4 percent, up sharply from 6.0 percent in June.
Analysts suspect some of the increase was due to statistical noise and generally look for the jobless rate to dip back to 6.3 percent in August, with employment rising by around 12,000.
Hogan noted that recent trends in business confidence and capacity utilisation suggested a relatively solid pick up in the pre-conditions for hiring.
There had also been a drop in the number of unemployment benefits recipients and consumers' unemployment expectations had improved, he added.
"We envisage the unemployment rate remaining a touch above 6 percent for a few quarters and only very gradually falling from there," said Hogan.
The ANZ job ads survey's correlation with employment has weakened somewhat over the last couple of years, in part due to firms using other methods of reaching job seekers such as social media.
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)