WELLINGTON: Job advertisements in New Zealand fell in March offering further signs of the soft labour market, a survey showed on Thursday.
Job vacancies advertised either online or in newspapers, declined a seasonally adjusted 1 percent on the previous month, according to ANZ Bank's monthly survey.
Employment advertisements are seen as a sign of demand for new workers and therefore a gauge of broad economic health, although labour market data are generally regarded as lagging indicators.
The figures followed a strong lift in the previous month, and resumed the negative trend of the preceding three months through January.
"Overall, the job ads data is consistent with a stable to slightly rising unemployment rate over the next six months," said ANZ senior economist Sharon Zoellner.
Internet advertisements rose 0.3 percent while newspaper ads were down 7.5 percent from February.
The composite index, which gives more weighting to newspaper advertisements, fell a seasonally adjusted 3.6 percent. It has been on a declining trend since the middle of 2011.
Broken down by region, there was a strong lift in job adverts in Canterbury as reconstruction work in the earthquake battered district starts to pick up.
Recent figures have offered a mixed view of the employment sector, with skilled labour vacancies at their strongest in a year, while job confidence among New Zealand workers has fallen since the start of the year.
New Zealand's jobless rate fell to 6.3 percent from 6.6 percent in the December quarter, a result skewed by people giving up looking for work that masked a soft labour market.
Many economists and analysts believe ongoing sluggishness in the employment sector will limit the country's economic recovery, keeping the Reserve Bank of New Zealand under little pressure to raise interest rates from a record low 2.5 percent.
New Zealand's central bank is expected to keep its benchmark interest rate on hold until the end of 2012 at the earliest.
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