The Department of Employment’s leading indicator of employment fell in January, making it 12 consecutive months without a rise – the longest such run since 2003. The department suggests that this “indicates that employment growth is likely to be below its long-term trend growth rate of 1.2% in coming months”.
So the fight for jobs looks set to continue and despite a nice improvement in some measures of the unemployment rate, it doesn’t look to be getting easier anytime soon.