The Australian and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) revealed that job advertisements in Australia rose a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent m-o-m in July, after gaining 2.7 percent in June. That was the fifth straight month of increase and the highest number of job ads recorded since 2011.

The annual pace of job ads growth accelerated to 12.8 percent in July from 10.5 percent in the prior month.

David Plank, head of Australian economics at ANZ, said: "Recent data has shown a clear improvement in labour market conditions consistent with elevated business conditions, profitability and capacity utilization. In particular, the strength in full-time employment and a solid increase in hours worked (near 3.3% y/y) are quite encouraging. Among other things we think this strength has contributed to the lift in consumer confidence from its recent low point in April." However, he also noted that "several challenges remain and we expect the pace of improvement to moderate over the medium term."