A lift in the number of jobs advertised indicates labour market conditions will gradually improve over the year, ANZ Bank says.
Jobs ads rose 0.3 per cent in March, in seasonally adjusted terms, reversing a fall of 0.8 per cent in February, according to the latest job ads survey by the bank.
Annual growth in job ads edged up to 7.0 per cent in the month, from 6.9 per cent in February.
ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said the results were encouraging after disappointment in February, even though they were at odds with recent official employment data.
"The improvement in job ads is consistent with other forward indicators such as our Labour Market Conditions Index and solid business conditions. As such, we continue to expect a gradual improvement in labour market conditions through 2017," he said.
Mr Plank noted that the strength of the labour market was the key indicator for inflation and consumer spending, and becoming increasingly important with household savings and confidence declining.
"This could have implications for consumer spending, especially if income growth continues to be weak," he said.
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