Australian employment report for January

Employment Change: +29.1K

  • expected +30K, prior +50K

Unemployment Rate: 6.4%

  • expected 6.5%, prior 6.6%

Full-Time Employment Change: +59.0K

  • prior was 35.7K

Part-Time Employment Change: -29.8K

  • prior was 14.3K

Participation Rate: 66.1%

  • expected 66.2%, prior was 66.2%

Pretty much expected job gains and the jobless rate is lower ... yes the participation rate is lower but the screaming headline will be lower u/e rate.

More:

  • Underemployment rate decreased to 8.1%.
  • Monthly hours worked decreased by 86 million hours, Decreased by 5.7% over the year

This graph from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows how quick the recovery in jobs has been:

jobs Australia

Jobs are still below their pre-crisis peak but not by a lot. As fiscal support is pulled away from the economy though there is a test ahead.