A host of survey results published today give mixed pointers to the strength of the Australian economy this year.

February’s ANZ Bank job advertisement figures showed a two per cent drop from the previous month. The result, which takes in both online and newspaper job advertisements, was an average of almost 269,000 ads a week.

Most significant is the fact that it is the first time total job ads have dropped since November, 2006.

However, despite suggestions that Australia’s jobs market may finally be cooling, ANZ Head of Australian Economics, Tony Pearson, warned against reading too much into the results.

“It may be that the cumulative impact of interest rate rises and continued volatility on financial markets is leading to some caution on the part of employers,” Mr Pearson said.

“Having said that, the total number of job advertisements is only a little below record highs, suggesting overall demand for workers remains robust.”

Meanwhile The Australian Bureau of Statistics today released its housing finance data for January, showing a surprisingly strong 2.3 per cent increase in the number of people obtaining finance for owner-occupation for the first month of 2008.

The value of loans for the same period totalled $15.9 billion. These results beat market forecasts by one per cent.

JP Morgan chief economist Stephen Walters believes that the strong housing demand in January may have been the result of people rushing to beat the interest rate hikes of February and March. Walters added that demand was likely to slow in coming months, as the cost of money rises.

Finally, NAB’s monthly business survey was published this morning, indicated that business confidence rebounded slightly in February, improving two points from its six-year low of minus four in January.

Tough business conditions continued though, as higher interest rates and consumer jitters hit sales and profits. NAB said a big drop in confidence in the financial industry reflected the turmoil in global markets, while construction and wholesale firms also lost confidence.

The resources sector was the notable exception, with a surge in confidence reflecting the increase in commodity prices, in particular coal and iron ore.

NABs chief economist Alan Oster said that the message from the survey was that growth had slowed from its very rapid pace in late 2007, when domestic activity peaked around October.