The number of job ads in newspapers and online in Australia fell nearly 1% last month.
Nearly 180,000 jobs were created per week in December, the ANZ Job Advertisement Series found.
But the ABC reports the annual number of jobs advertised fell in 2011 for the first time in nearly two years, down 2.6% on December 2010.
ANZ Australian economics head of Katie Dean says that while there were some bright spots in the economy, employers appeared to be hiring fewer people overall.
Job conditions were weak in New South Wales and Victoria, she said, most likely reflecting ongoing consolidation in the manufacturing and retail sectors.
Official unemployment figures will be released by the Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
