Australia’s unemployment rate drops to 1-1/2 year low

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

FXStreet (Mumbai) - The latest employment figures from Australia, as released by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), surprised markets to the upside in Nov, with the unemployment rate falling 0.1 pts to the lowest since May 2014 at 5.8% against 5.9% seen in Oct. Markets had predict the unemployment rate to tick higher to 6.0% last month.

While participation rate increased 0.3 pts to 65.3% compared to expectations of 65.04%.

Employment increased 71,400 to 11,900,600. Full-time employment increased 41,600 to 8,205,800 and part-time employment increased 29,700 to 3,694,800. Unemployment decreased 2,800 to 739,100. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 9,400 to 517,400 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 6,600 to 221,700.

ABS noted in its release, “incoming rotation adding to strong employment rise”

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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