Latest / Best of Business / Kelly Eckhold: Westpac Chief Economist on job ads falling for the third month in a row

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Kelly Eckhold: Westpac Chief Economist on job ads falling for the third month in a row · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: Heller duple see Ala.
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  Speaker 2: Nineteen past five. Now, employment seems to be a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of a lag in terms of the economic recovery.
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  Speaker 2: According to seek Data, job ads in July fell about
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  Speaker 2: a percentage. Boy, it was actually zero point eight percent.
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  Speaker 2: This is the third consecutive month to month drop and
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  Speaker 2: the applications for jobs continuing to climb. Kelliacold is the
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  Speaker 2: chief economist at Westpacken with us high Kelly, Hi, unemployment's peaks,
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  Speaker 2: but do you think we're going to bounce around the
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  Speaker 2: bottom for a bit here?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems likely. I mean, the labor market didn't
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  Speaker 3: really emerge unscathed from the Iram War, probably just put
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  Speaker 3: off for three to six months some of the decisions
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  Speaker 3: businesses might have otherwise made to hire Am. We're seeing
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  Speaker 3: the implications of that and the unemployment rate and job
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  Speaker 3: ads growth which is just coming off a little bit. Now.
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  Speaker 2: So why why put it off? Is it just to
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  Speaker 2: kind of assess the situation a bit, make sure it's
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  Speaker 2: the right decision.
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  Speaker 3: I think a lot of firms have just been a
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  Speaker 3: bit concerned about the uncertain environment. Perhaps at the start
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  Speaker 3: of the year they were looking forward to a much
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  Speaker 3: better year, But business confidence really got buffeted around the
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  Speaker 3: last three or four months as the petrol price went
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  Speaker 3: up and down sab the consumers as well, and it's
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  Speaker 3: been easier just to tack some of these decisions to touch.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think the election is going to do
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  Speaker 2: to it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the same risk as there again. I mean, the
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  Speaker 3: polls suggest that things are quite close, and the business
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  Speaker 3: to generally views the risks of a move to a
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  Speaker 3: left landing government more negatively. So you know, I would
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  Speaker 3: have thought for the next couple of months or so,
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  Speaker 3: businesses may feel like things are in a state of
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  Speaker 3: flux until it becomes clear who's going to be in
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  Speaker 3: charge of the country.
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  Speaker 2: I suppose if we want to get jobs, we've got
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  Speaker 2: to go into the mining, resources and energy. What's going
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  Speaker 2: on there that they're going up like that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, commodity prices are very strong. Those global semi conductor
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  Speaker 3: markets are very strong, and anything that derives off that
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  Speaker 3: is quite strong. Same with commodity markets in general. Like
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  Speaker 3: our agricultural commodities still in reasonably decent demand. That's why
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  Speaker 3: we see employment trends in the South Island in particular
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  Speaker 3: being quite a bit stronger than in the North Island.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Kelly, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Kelly
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  Speaker 2: called West pax chief Economist.
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