Mccullar

UNEMPLOYMENT is placed to drop more with the amount of job opportunities climbing to record amounts, fuelling speculation of another interest rate rise.

National job opportunities in the 3 months to August rose 2.9 per cent, seasonally modified, in line with the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Job openings increased by 11.9 % in the year to August.

CommSec equities economist Martin Arnold said with job openings now at an archive high, the unemployment rate was set to drop below 4 per cent - from its present 4.3 per cent - as business conditions encouraged employers to find more staff.

"The Australian economy is saving strong growth and business problems are essentially as effective as they get," he said.

The effectiveness of the economy led a frustrated John Howard to state people was failing to supply the government credit for economic management.

"I think there's a view in the community... perhaps a substantial amount that, for somehow or another, our economic power and our economic stability and growth is happening naturally, that the economy is on autopilot," the Prime Minister told a forum at Ocean Grove on the Victorian coast yesterday.

He said this was one of the explanations why the federal government was performing so poorly in the general public opinion polls: "I think people are beginning to get the Australian economy for granted."

Seasonally-adjusted job vacancies totalled 172,700 in the three months to August.

Mr Arnold said there have been less than three unemployed people for each vacant work, the lowest level on record.

Company services has been among the best development areas, with 45,200 openings, 28.4 % more than a year before.

The amount of positions vacant in the communications industry has more than doubled to 2800 in the exact same period.

There clearly was strong need for labour in the structure, retail trade and transportation companies.

Areas that look like less desperate for staff include food, entertainment and personal services.

People sector is continuing to expand, with the number of vacant jobs 11.8 per cent higher than this past year.

In the season to August, job openings in the growth state of Western Australia were up by 31.8 per cent, unadjusted, adopted by the ACT, that has been up 31 per cent.

Only Queensland had a decline, with year-on-year openings down 3.3 %.

Matthew Johnson, the senior economist at dealer ICAP, said the rise in jobs opportunities must produce employment growth of more than 2 per cent.

"This means that unemployment will probably fall lower, and that everyone else from the Reserve Bank down will continue steadily to worry about wage-push inflation," he explained.

Large job openings and low unemployment is just a conventional recipe for inflation, with a limit to how many opportunities can be filled.

There has, so far, been no proof wage inflation, with the average price of work rising broadly in line with costs in the economy. The next inflation numbers are published on October 24.

UBS chief economist Scott Haslem said the growth in job vacancies would contribute to higher inflation in the ultimate months of 2007. He expected the Reserve Bank would raise interest levels in February 2008 to stop inflation going above the RBA's 3 percent target range.

But Mr Arnold said the escalation in labour supply, originating from migration, wouldn't create salaries demands. Agency card credit debt settlement5627555 - PROVA