Australian Jobs Smash Expectations with 58,600 New Jobs in October

Australia’s jobless rate has fallen below 6 per cent for the first time in five months, surprising economists and delivering a boost to the administration of Malcolm Turnbull, the country’s new prime minister.

The economy added 58,600 jobs in October, almost four times more than consensus forecasts, suggesting it was performing better than many investors and economists expected.

Justin Fabo, economist at ANZ Bank, said the jobs numbers published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed “startling strength” and said a cut in official interest rates was now less likely.
“We are always wary of reading too much into the monthly labour force ‘lottery’ but even looking through the noise it’s hard not to conclude that current labour market conditions in Australia are strong,” said Mr Fabo.

The data buoyed the Australian dollar, up as much as 1 per cent to $0.7134 and on track for its best one-day gain in a month.

Via FT.com

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.