- Employment Change March: 18.1K (expected 2.5K, prior 47.3K)
- Unemployment Rate March: 5.8% (expected 6.1%, prior 6.0%)
- Full Time Employment Change March: -22.1K (prior was +80.5K)
- Part Time Employment Change March: 40.2K (prior was -33.3K)
- Participation Rate March: 64.7% (expected 64.8%, prior was 64.8%)
February jobs revised higher to 48,200 (from 47,300)
The data is a mixed bag. The aussie $ doesn’t give a rat’s, its higher.
- The market expectations was for jobs growth to ease back a little (2.5K the consensus estimate from Bloomberg’s survey), but its blown those expectations away with +18.1K
- BUT, much of the gain is in part-time, while full-time has declined
- Unemployment has dropped, nice one
- BUT, the participation rate is down too
Like I said… mixed bag.
AUD orderboard is here, and the levels (above 0.9400) are still good. The selling at 0.9450 is not huge though. I’ll try to get a fuller updated board soon, though.
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ANZ reacts:
- Employment rose 88k (3.1% annualised) over the 3 months to March, much stronger than growth of 0.5% recorded over ’13
- overall, today’s labour market report provides further evidence that the economy continued to improve in early 2014.
