SYDNEY, July 6 (Reuters) - Australian job advertisements jumped a record 42% in June as much of the economy re-opened from coronavirus lockdowns, though ads were still down sharply on a year earlier.
Monday's figures from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group ANZ.AX showed total job ads climbed to an average 89,252, up from just 62,872 in May. Ads had edged down 0.3% in May after a huge 53.7% dive in April.
Despite the bounce, ads were still down 44.6% on June last year.
"This is not overly surprising, given that COVID-19 restrictions continued to ease across most of Australia during June," said ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch.
"After an initial bounce, we expect the recovery will be a lot slower. There have been a number of recent large-scale lay-offs announced across a wide range of sectors, including travel, retail, media, consulting, and education."
She noted the rise in new COVID-19 cases in Melbourne and return to lockdowns in several postcodes posed a risk to the pace and timing of the recovery.
Economists fear unemployment could spike toward 10% in coming months as large chunks of the economy were shut to fight the virus. Official data last showed the jobless rate rose to 7.1% in May, and would have been more than 11% if not for government measures to limit layoffs.
The ANZ vacancies series is closely watched by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) given it counts actual job ads, while Australian Bureau of Statistics data is based on intentions by firms to hire.
The RBA has slashed rates to a record low of 0.25% and launched a massive bond buying programme to cushion the economy from the impact of the pandemic.