Dot-com disputes ANZ job ad survey

AUSTRALIA (ZDNet Australia) - "Our evidence doesn't support that contention," Seek CEO, Paul Bassat, told ZDNet.

Whilst ANZ data suggests an employment advertisement slowdown also signifies a slowdown in the economy, Bassat believes there's a bigger explanation.

"The move of employment advertising from print to the Net," Bassat said. "Recruitment firms are increasingly using the Internet to look for staff," Bassat added.

According to the ANZ survey, Internet job advertisements have fallen 2.5 percent in November and newspaper job ads have suffered a downturn of 8.5 percent.

However, Bassat claims that a 2.6 percent fall in Net employment advertisements last November suggests that the fall is explicable by seasonal factors.

"We've seen a very, very modest slow down in November but that's consistent with the last two Novembers," Bassat said.

Furthermore, the ANZ seasonally adjust newspaper figures whereas Internet data is not, Bassat said.

According to ANZ data, there has been a 28 percent decline in newspaper employment advertising over the last 12 months. However, employment advertising on the Internet has increased by 34 percent, Bassat said.

The ANZ's job advertising survey has traditionally been a useful tool for predicting growth and slowdowns in the employment market, Bassat said.

However, the move from print to Internet advertising is "another very good and very plausible explanation for a fall in newspaper job advertising," he added.