Aussie Unemployment rate increased to 7.0% vs 6.9% prior, AUD firms

The Australian seasonally adjusted estimates for October 2020 came out and the Unemployment Rate increased to 7.0% vs 7.1% expected and 6.9% prior.

The participation rate increased to 65.8%.

Employment increased to 12,773,900.

Employment to population ratio increased to 61.2%. The underemployment rate decreased to 10.4%.

Monthly hours worked increased by 21 million hours.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in October 2020: The unemployment rate increased 0.1 pts to 7.0% (1.7 pts higher than a year ago).

Unemployment increased by 25,500 to 960,900 people (and increased by 238,900 over the year to October 2020).

The youth unemployment rate increased 1.0 pts to 15.6% (and increased by 3.1 pts over the year to October 2020).

AUD/USD has bounced on the improvement in the number of unemployed, full-time employment and a beat vs the expectations in the unemployment rate. 

The participation rate is also an improvement. 

Description of the Unemployment Rate

The Unemployment Rate release by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force.

If the rate hikes, indicates a lack of expansion within the Australian labor market.

As a result, a rise leads to weaken the Australian economy.

A decrease of the figure is seen as positive (or bullish) for the AUD, while an increase is seen as negative (or bearish).