One reason why I’m so busy is the ANZ Job Ads rose for an eighth straight month in January. Resume writers rub their hands when job ads rise.

The NAB’s employment index also improved dramatically in the December business survey. Let’s start popping the champagne corks now!

There’s a few things to remember. The count is not exact. It double and triple counts placements of the same ad as well as shonky ads, but still, it’s better than going negative.

The Federal Government is praying that about one million people find work before JobKeeper terminates at the end of March.

I hope so too because on the figures I’ve got, more than one million people still won’t have a job by then as a direct result of the Covid-19 restrictions.

Remember too, there were about 700,000 unemployed people before Covid-19 hit.

Unfortunately, these job ad figures – sometimes called ‘headline labour market numbers’ – don’t tell the full story.

People on lower wages and minority groups are barely hanging on as underemployment and layoffs hit numerous industries.

Even so, the economy is recovering faster than expected but as I’ve said before, keep an eye on whether the jobs are fulltime, part time or casual. Many are short term contracts.

Spare a thought for the 200 Adelaide workers at SA Structural who lost their jobs last week, the 100 jobs that went at West End and 70 at Adelaide Events Group.

Spare a thought too for small businesses in Melbourne and Sydney CBD’s.