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UNEMPLOYMENT is placed to fall further with the amount of job vacancies rising to record amounts, fuelling speculation of another interest rate rise.

National job openings in the three months to August rose 2.9 %, seasonally adjusted, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Job opportunities increased by 11.9 per cent in the season to August.

CommSec stocks economist Martin Arnold said with job vacancies now at a record high, the unemployment rate was set to fall below 4 per cent - from its current 4.3 per cent - as bosses were encouraged by business conditions to seek more staff.

"The Australian economy is producing stable growth and business problems are virtually as good as they get," he said.

The effectiveness of the economy led a frustrated John Howard to state people was failing to provide the government credit for economic management.

"I think there is a view locally... perhaps a significant number that, for somehow or still another, our economic strength and our economic stability and growth is happening naturally, that the economy is on autopilot," the Prime Minister told a forum at Ocean Grove on the Victorian coast yesterday.

He said this was one of many explanations why the federal government was faring so poorly in the general public view polls: "I think individuals are just starting to get the Australian economy for granted."

Seasonally-adjusted work openings totalled 172,700 in the 3 months to August.

Mr Arnold said there have been under three unemployed people for every single job, the lowest level on record.

Business companies has been one of the best development areas, with 45,200 openings, 28.4 % greater than a year before.

The number of jobs vacant in the communications industry has significantly more than doubled to 2800 in exactly the same period.

There was strong need for labour in the construction, retail trade and transportation companies.

Areas that look like less desperate for staff include welcome, recreation and personal services.

People sector is continuing to develop, with the number of vacant jobs 11.8 % higher than this past year.

In the year to August, job openings in the growth state of Western Australia were up by 31.8 per cent, unadjusted, adopted by the ACT, that has been up 31 per cent.

Just Queensland had a drop, with year-on-year opportunities down 3.3 per cent.

Matthew Johnson, the senior economist at dealer ICAP, said the increase in jobs vacancies should deliver employment growth greater than 2 %.

"This means that unemployment will probably drop lower, and that everybody else from the Reserve Bank down will continue to worry about wage-push inflation," he explained.

Low unemployment and large job openings is a traditional formula for inflation, with a limit to just how many jobs could be filled.

There's, so far, been number proof of wage inflation, with the average cost of labour rising largely in line with costs in the economy. The following inflation numbers are published on October 24.

UBS key economist Scott Haslem said the growth in job opportunities would subscribe to higher inflation in the ultimate months of 2007. He believed the Reserve Bank could increase rates of interest in February 2008 to avoid inflation planning above the RBA's 3 % target range.

Nevertheless Mr Arnold said the increase in labour supply, coming from migration, would not create wages pressures. discount corporate web design