Latest job figures out today show more bad news for the Australian economy. Notable though was how they were reported.
News.com.au grouped newspaper ads (5-6% of the total) with online, and didn’t offer split figures:
The ANZ survey found total job advertisements slipped 10.4 per cent in February, the largest recorded monthly fall since the series began in 1999…..
In the year to February the number of job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet has backpedalled nearly 40 per cent. This was also the worst outcome in the history of the survey.
Fairfax grouped as well, initially at least
Jobs advertised online and in newspapers fell 10.4% in February alone, the most in any month since the survey began, to an average of 161,583 a week,
but then went for the split with newspapers first
Online ads drop too
Newspaper ads alone collapsed 25.2% in February, ANZ said, taking them 55.4% lower than a year ago.
”But newspaper advertising is down 27% over the summer and 44% since the collapse of Lehman Brothers,” ANZ’s Mr Hogan said in a statement, referring to the collapse of the US investment bank in September.
Jobs posted online dropped 9.4% in February, or 38.6% lower than a year ago.
The slump is ”the largest monthly decline since the combined internet and newspaper series commenced in 1999,”. ”The annual rate of decline, at 40%, is also the worst outcome on this record.”
Interestingly, neither offered a raw number split, only percentage declines. Finally they’re doing it right, well nearly, but close enough for my liking. The drop in newspaper ads probably deserved a separate mention due to the size of the drop, although primacy in order reported is arguable.
