Australian Employment Data Had Errors Say Government

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has retracted its seasonally adjusted employment data for July and August, which recorded huge swings in the jobless rate.

The number of Australians with jobs rose by a massive 121,000 in August, the largest monthly increase since records began in 1978, the ABS reported last month.

Analysts had anticipated a gain of only 10,000.

A month earlier the ABS said the unemployment rate jumped to a 12-year high of 6.4% in July, which also surprised economists who were expecting the rate to stay steady at 6%.

 
Doubts were raised about the veracity of both sets of figures at the time they were released.

The figures are adjusted to remove the effect of regular seasonal influences on the data.

But the ABS said there was very little evidence of the usual seasonality in the July and August figures, as well as the September figures, which will be released on Thursday.

The bureau said it would revise the figures for these months by replacing the reported seasonally adjusted figures with the unadjusted figures.

via The Guardian

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