edf40wrjww2CF_PaperMaster:Desc
Official figures to be released today are expected to show employers continued to hire in August despite the weakening economy.
Economists are tipping that the total number of people in jobs increased by 5,000 last month, but that the unemployment rate also rose from 4.3 to 4.4 per cent.
Earlier this week, a survey by the ANZ showed there was the biggest monthly fall in jobs advertised in August in nearly eight years.
Chief economist at BT Financial Group Chris Caton says the rate of growth of people finding jobs has remained strong this year, despite weakness in parts of the economy.
"Either this says well there's a range of indicators about the economy and this one's at the strong end of the range, or else what we're seeing is the operation of lags and therefore employment is going to weaken, but it just hasn't weakened yet," he said.
"We don't really know at this stage which of those is true."
A senior economist with Macquarie Bank , Brian Redican, says the figures signal unemployment is set to worsen.
"Business confidence has clearly taken a big hit around the middle of 2008, and it takes some time before that actually affects hiring intentions but I think we're on the brink of seeing that now and that should ensure that the unemployment rate continues to rise over the next nine to 12 months," he said.
The rise comes despite companies such as Ford, Qantas and Starbucks recently announcing they are axing jobs.
Those job cuts and more are expected to flow through to the unemployment rate over the next year and a half.
Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens indicated this week he expects the jobless rate to rise to above 5 per cent over that ...