The job ad market is showing tentative signs of life, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the ANZ bank.

Job advertisements have risen by 3 per cent in February to end at their highest level since October last year, which suggests ‘tentative signs of a stabilization in hiring’.

Despite the positive signs, the job ad market remains well below the high points of last year, and 22 per cent below the most recent peak in April 2011.

In an index-by-index level, job advertising on the internet rose by 3.3 per cent, while newspaper jobs dipped 2.9 per cent across the board.

ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics and Property Research, Ivan Colhoun, warned against premature optimism. Saying that that the market showed similar signs of recovery early last year before rapidly deteriorating.

“The brief improvement in job advertising we saw in early 2012 came after a period of financial instability surrounding renewed European government debt concerns. We suspect this brief improvement represented some delayed labour demand from the weak Q4 2011. The negative underlying trend became more apparent in the following months,” Mr Colhoun said.

Mr Colhoun said that generally optimistic global conditions, including the avoidance of the US falling off the ‘fiscal cliff’, have contributed to the upswing in hiring rates, but warned of global unemployment rates.

“Despite tentative signs that labour demand might be stabilising, we expect a continued gradual rise in the unemployment rate to around 53⁄4% by mid year,” Mr Colhoun said.