Australian advertisements for employment opportunities hiked in December once again to hit a 2 and a half year high, providing more evidence to back the fact that the country's economy is growing and strengthening fast enough for the central bank to increase interest rates for the fourth consecutive time in the next meeting.

In newspapers and online, job ads surged by 6% in December alone, as per figures shared in the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. report which was released today in Melbourne. As compared to last year, however, the ads were still 22.6% lower.

During the month of November, unemployment fell on the back of the biggest 3-month raise in hiring in 3 years, when companies like Chevron Corp. expanded its LNG projects in Western Australia to effectively meet the rising global demand for energy products.

Experts now believe that Governor Glenn Stevens will hike the borrowing costs by early March after raising the benchmark rate on December 1 to 3.75%.

"Job advertisements are now well past the low reached in July 2009 and are continuing to improve month on month. This is already translating into employment growth", said Warren Hogan, chief economist at ANZ Bank.