Slim growth in online job advertising

Job advertising on the internet has experienced the tiniest of growth in February, hardly the antidote to last week's figures showing the unemployment rate jumping to its highest level in over a year at 5.9 per cent.

The Department of Employment on Wednesday said job ads rose by just 0.1 per cent in February, to be 2.2 per cent higher than a year earlier.

Machinery operators and drivers saw the biggest rise among the eight occupational groups monitored by the department, rising two per cent in the month and 13.1 per cent annually, although it says this is the smallest grouping in its survey and translates to a modest 990 job ads over the year.