SYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Australian job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet climbed in July, extending a strong rebound in the previous month in a tentative sign of an upturn in the country's labour market.
Tuesday's figures from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group ANZ.AX showed total job advertisements rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in July from June, when they jumped 4.9%.
Ads averaged 161,427 a week, 9.1% lower than in July last year. Annual growth has been in negative territory since the start of this year.
ANZ's head of Australian economics David Plank said the second consecutive monthly gain in job ads was "encouraging" given the series is an important barometer of the health of the country's labour market.
However, it is still too soon to know if the trend has reversed, he added.
"We will need another month or two of gains before we conclude the trend has definitely turned," Plank said.
"Even if job ads are starting to move higher, there is still some way to go before they would be suggesting a turn in the recent slowing of jobs growth and rise in unemployment.”
The vacancies series is valued by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) since the Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys firms directly about their labour needs rather than just counting ads.
Australia's labour market has been a lone bright spot in a slowing economy but it seems to be losing steam. The unemployment rate surprisingly jumped to an eight-month peak of 5.2% in April and has stayed there as more people look for work.
The rise in the jobless rate, together with lukewarm inflation, falling house prices and sluggish consumer spending prompted the country's central bank to ease policy rates by 50 basis points since June to a record low 1.00%.
Analysts widely expect the RBA to cut a third time this year. Financial futures 0#YIB: see a real chance of the cash rate at 0.75% before Christmas.