Australia skilled vacancies rose 0.2 percent in February

The Australian government's index of skilled job vacancies rose 0.2 percent in February to 112.4, the Employment Department said on Wednesday.
Skilled vacancies were 4.0 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the index which is based on a count of skilled vacancy advertisements in the metropolitan newspapers in the six states and the Northern Territory.
Vacancies rose in two of the three occupational groupings with professionals up by 0.2 percent, and trades up 0.4 percent.
Skilled vacancies rose in 11 of the 18 occupational groupings in February, the department said.
The largest rises were for marketing and advertising professionals up 4.4 percent, printing trade rising 4.2 percent and wood trades up 3.6 percent.
Separately, the department's information and communications technology (ICT) index rose 28.2 percent in the four weeks to mid-February. The series was rebased to 100.0 in November 2002.
"However this index is not seasonally adjusted and this growth reflects recovery from low seasonal advertising levels over December/January," the department said in a statement.