The Federal Government's leading indicator of employment is pointing tentatively to a quickening pace in jobs growth.
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) says its monthly leading indicator of employment has risen for three straight months after increasing to minus 0.962 in September from minus 1.123 in August.
These gains follow 18 months of successive falls.
''The indicator is tentatively foreshadowing a quickening in the pace of employment growth to above its long-term trend rate of 1.9 per cent per annum,'' the department said on Wednesday.
''Another three consecutive monthly increases in the indicator are required to confirm that there was a turning point in June 2009.''
The leading jobs indicator anticipates movements in the growth cycle of employment, with a turning point confirmed when there are six consecutive monthly movements in the same direction as the first turning point.
It does this through the use of a composite index of four weighted series - ANZ Newspaper Job Advertisements, Dun and Bradstreet Employment Expectations, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index of Economic Activity and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index.
Official labour force data for August are released tomorrow.
Economists' forecasts centre on a 15,000 drop in the number of people employed, lifting the jobless rate to 5.9 per cent from 5.8 per cent, which would be the highest level since July 2003.
AAP
