- Aussie Unemployment: 5.6% vs expected 5.5%.
- Employment Change: 17.5k vs expected 20k.
- Tokyo comes back from holiday to a fresh bout of risk aversion.
The Aussie took a knee-jerk drop on an employment miss, declining into the 82.00 level on reaction.
Unemployment, new jobs miss
The Australian unemployment rate ticked higher to 5.6% and the Aussie economy only added 17.5k new jobs, coming in below the expected 5.5% and 20k, respectively. The one positive note buried in the red ink is the upswing in full-time jobs, which added almost 65k new positions after the 49.8k decline seen in January. Softer-than-expected macro figures continue to pump out of the Australian continent, and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will continue to twist in the wind, waiting for better growth figures before moving on any changes to monetary policy.
The Aussie data miss is sending traders back into the safe-haven Yen in early Asia trading. The Tokyo market is still working on getting the blood flowing after taking yesterday off to celebrate the Equinox holiday, and next on the docket is the January month-on-month numbers forJapan's Industrial Activity Index at 04:30 GMT. Market forecasts are expecting a 1.7% decline in the numbers, compared to the previous reading of 0.5%.
AUD/JPY Levels to consider
The siappointing employment figures for Australia has sent the AUD/JPY back into the week's range, and testing support at the 50-hour EMA at the 82.00 level, while a further decline from here will run into further support from Wednesday's low of 81.45. A bullish retracement will see support-turned resistance at the week's swing high of 82.20, while a dedicated move higher will need to break through the week's fresh high at 82.57.
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