There are troubling signs that the jobs market is deteriorating more quickly than anticipated, increasing the chance the Reserve Bank will be forced to decide between a rise in unemployment or higher inflation.

The keenly watched ANZ-Indeed measure of job ads tumbled by 3.3 per cent in September, its single largest monthly drop since February last year. September was the third consecutive monthly fall in the measure and the sixth monthly drop through 2025.

Ads are now down to their lowest level since 2021 during the pandemic period. The drop in ads is a little stronger than the fall in job vacancies, as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but both are pointing to ongoing softness across the jobs market.

ANZ economist Aaron Luk said on a per-unemployed-person basis, both job

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