NSW residents are the most worried of those in all the mainland states and territories about losing their jobs and have the least confidence in the quality of their political leaders, a Sensis survey has found.

Adding weight to their concerns, the governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens, warned yesterday that the national unemployment rate could climb by 1 percentage point in the coming 18 months from its near generational low of 4.3 per cent as the economy cools.

A survey of job ads conducted by ANZ also suggests a slowdown in job creation may already be under way, with jobs advertised on the internet and in newspapers recording their sharpest fall in 7½ years last month.

"Unemployment has not been on the nation's radar for some time, but since May it has risen more than any issue," the author of the Sensis report, Christena Singh, said.

After asking 1500 people to rate their level of concern about unemployment on a scale of one to 10, in NSW the average response was 6.02 - higher than the national average of 5.70. NSW was equal highest with Tasmania.

Nationally, unemployment was the fastest-growing cause for concern, while unease about the cost of living ranked most highly overall.

Asked about the "standards and quality of political leaders", respondents in NSW on average ranked their concern level at 7.01, higher than the national average of 6.61.

Mr Stevens said it was not inevitable that the jobless rate would rise as the economy slowed under the weight of higher interest rates, but previous episodes suggested that it would.

"It's not that there has to be some rise in unemployment to achieve what we're trying to achieve, but in the real world and in other episodes that has been what has tended to occur."

An official jobs report due to be released by the Bureau of Statistics on Thursday is expected to show the pace of jobs is growth slowing.

The ANZ survey of job ads found there was a 4.9 per cent fall in the number of jobs advertised in newspapers and on the internet last month - the fourth consecutive month of decline. Newspaper job ads have fallen 24 per cent in just four months.