Australia Oct skilled job vacancies fall 8.8 pct

CANBERRA, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Australia's index of skilled job vacancies fell 8.8 percent seasonally adjusted in October from the previous month, and was 24.1 percent lower than a year ago, the Employment Department said on Wednesday. Backing expectations of a downturn, the index, which is based on a count of skilled vacancy advertisements in metropolitan newspapers in the country's six states and the Northern Territory, fell 3.7 percent in October to 78.4 in trend terms and stood 22.2 percent lower than a year earlier. The information and communications technology (ICT) index fell 4.6 percent in October to 208.7, and was 26.1 percent lower than a year earlier. Vacancies fell in trend terms for all three occupational groups, with professionals down by 3.9 percent, trades down 3.9 percent and associate professionals down 3.5 percent. Australia's centre-left government will release a mid-year fiscal statement in November which is expected to halve growth expectations to around 2 percent or lower as fears of a global recession intensify amid the financial market turmoil. Official jobless figures for October ticked up from 33-year lows to 4.3 percent and some economists predict unemployment could rise next year to near 9 percent, although the government has rejected that figure. The Employment Department said the fall in skilled vacancies was widespread, with falls in 17 of the index's 18 sub groups, up one from September. The strongest of those falls was for organisation and information professionals, down by 15.4 percent, followed by printing trades, down 8.5 percent, and social professionals, down 7.3 percent. The only sector to record a rise was marketing and advertising professionals, up 2.5 percent.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by James Thornhill) .

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