The number of job advertisements fell for the first time in five months during May, new figures show.
Job ads on the internet and in newspapers dropped 5.6 per cent in May, figures from ANZ show.
ANZ senior economist Justin Fabo said the sudden weakness in the job ads market came at a time when news about budget cuts and tax rises started to appear.
"The key question now is whether the fall in job ads is largely temporary," he said.
"If it isn't, this will be a risk to our forecast that labour demand will improve slowly this year amid modestly better economic conditions, with the unemployment rate expected to remain close to six per cent for some time."
The unemployment rate stayed steady at 5.8 per cent in April, after hitting six per cent in January and February.
Mr Fabo said economic activity appears to have slowed after picking up steam in the first three months of the year.
"In particular, consumer spending has slowed and housing market activity has cooled somewhat, both at the same time that resources investment is falling sharply," he said.
"Alongside this, consumer confidence has fallen sharply as news around the commonwealth budget has adversely affected sentiment."
Mr Fabo said this uncertainty and weaker consumer confidence is likely to persist for some months.
The number of online job ads fell six per cent, but those placed in newspapers rose 7.2 per cent, ANZ said.
Official jobs figures will be released on Thursday, with the unemployment rate expected to rise to 5.9 per cent in May.
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