Australia's Unemployment Rate rises to 3.7% in July vs. 3.5% forecast

FXStreet Team FXStreet

According to the latest data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, the Unemployment Rate in Australia ticked higher to 3.7% in July, as against the expectations of 3.5% and the previous reading of 3.5%.

The Australian Employment Change arrived at -14.6K in July, compared with the consensus forecast of 15K and 32.6K jobs addition seen in June.

Additional details revealed that Full-Time Employment decreased by 24.2K in the reported month vs. June’s growth of 39.3K. However, Part-Time Employment jumped by 9.6K as against a drop of 6.7K in June.

The Participation Rate edged lower to 66.7% in July vs. 66.8% expected and 66.8% previous.

"The fall in employment follows an average monthly increase of around 42,000 people during the first half of this year. Employment is still around 387,000 people higher than last July," ABS head of labor statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

Meanwhile, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the ALP national conference in Brisbane on Thursday it was a "difficult time for many Australians", as global factors intensified cost-of-living pressures.

Market reaction

AUD/USD accelerated declines on the downbeat Australian jobs data, falling 0.39% on the day to trade at 0.6367, as of writing. Discouraging Australian labor market data fan expectations of an extended pause by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) at its September 5 meeting.

Australian Dollar price today

The table below shows the percentage change of Australian Dollar (AUD) against listed major currencies today. Australian Dollar was the weakest against the Japanese Yen.

	USD	EUR	GBP	CAD	AUD	JPY	NZD	CHF
USD		0.11%	0.13%	0.11%	0.71%	0.10%	0.45%	0.09%
EUR	-0.11%		0.02%	0.00%	0.60%	-0.02%	0.33%	-0.02%
GBP	-0.14%	-0.03%		-0.03%	0.58%	-0.04%	0.31%	-0.05%
CAD	-0.11%	0.00%	0.01%		0.63%	-0.02%	0.24%	-0.04%
AUD	-0.62%	-0.60%	-0.59%	-0.61%		-0.63%	-0.16%	-0.51%
JPY	-0.09%	0.03%	0.02%	0.02%	0.63%		0.38%	0.00%
NZD	-0.45%	-0.36%	-0.33%	-0.23%	0.26%	-0.36%		-0.36%
CHF	-0.07%	0.04%	0.02%	0.02%	0.62%	0.02%	0.37%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Euro from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent EUR (base)/JPY (quote).

Economic Indicator

Australia Unemployment Rate s.a.

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 weakening 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).

Why it matters to traders

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publishes an overview of trends in the Australian labour market, with unemployment rate a closely watched indicator. It is released about 15 days after the month end and throws light on the overall economic conditions, as it is highly correlated to consumer spending and inflation. Despite the lagging nature of the indicator, it affects the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) interest rate decisions, in turn, moving the Australian dollar. Upbeat figure tends to be AUD positive.

Author

FXStreet Team

FXStreet

Composed of a group of economic journalists and FX experts, the FXStreet content team produces and oversees all content published on FXStreet. It provides a purely journalistic approach to the Forex market.

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