Australian economic data - the employment report for October
A solid report.
- Full-time jobs jumped from September while part-time fell (14,900 decline in part-time employment)
- headline jobs added is twice what was the consensus expected
- unemployment rate dropped again (lower participation takes a touch of shine off)
More:
- underemployment rate remained at 6.0%
- underutilisation rate 9.3%, lowest since March 1982
- employment to population stable at 64.3%
- monthly hours worked increased 0.1% to 1,864 million
- youth unemployment rate decreased to 7.5%
- unemployment rate at 3.4% is the lowest since September of 1974
If the RBA was eyeing data they'd see this further tightness in the labour market as a reason to keep on hiking rates. They next meet on December 6 where a +25bp rate hike is expected.