The headline data for the labour market report, December, is here
Currency response:
Fleshing out some of the report details here - this the 'trend' data, which while not the headline result is better guide to labour market developments :
trend unemployment rate decreased to 5.1%
- lowest level since April 2019
trend monthly employment increased by around 18,000
- Both full-time and part-time employment increased by around 9,000
- Over the past year, trend employment increased by around 261,000 people (2.1 per cent), which continued to be above the average annual growth over the past 20 years (2.0 per cent)
- Full-time employment growth (1.5 per cent) was below the average annual growth over the past 20 years (1.6 per cent)
- part-time employment growth (3.2 per cent) was above the average annual growth over the past 20 years (3.0 per cent)
trend monthly hours worked increased by 0.2 per cent in December 2019 and by 1.7 per cent over the past year
- in line with the 20 year average annual growth of 1.7 per cent
trend monthly underemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 per cent in December 2019, unchanged over the past year
- The trend monthly underutilisation rate also remained steady at 13.5 per cent in December 2019, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the past year
If you would like even more, Australian Bureau of Statistics report ink here
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I said in the first post that this result means the RBA is unlikely to cut the cash rate at its first meeting of the year, next Tuesday Feb 4. I will print this and eat it if they do.
AUD update:
