The September labour market report is here:

Australia Sept. jobs report: Employment +5.6K (expected +15K)

I got side-tracked by BOJ Gov Kuroda and his upbeat comment (yeah, just the one :-D )

Anyway, more on the Aussie jobs report …..

While the employment gain for the month was amiss the unemployment rate came in at a huge beat, 5% vs. 5.3% expected

yes, the participation rate fell, which be a factor …. but, as the ABS urge, let's looK at the 'trend data' … this via the Australian Bureau of Statistics website:

The trend unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2 per cent

  • August figure was revised down

"Today's figures continue to show a gradual decrease in the trend unemployment rate that began in late 2014. The trend unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent is the lowest it has been since mid 2012." said the Chief Economist for the ABS, Bruce Hockman.

Trend employment increased by around 26,000 persons

  • full-time employment increasing by over 21,000 persons.

More:

  • trend participation rate remained steady at 65.6 per cent
  • Over the past year, trend employment increased by over 290,000 persons or 2.4 per cent, which was above the average year-on-year growth over the past 20 years (2.0 per cent)
  • The trend monthly hours worked increased by 0.2 per cent in September 2018 and by 1.8 per cent over the past year
  • The trend underemployment rate decreased to 8.3 per cent in September 2018 and the trend underutilisation rate decreased to 13.5 per cent.

OK, so the trend numbers (which the ABS tells us are more reliable to look at) are not quite so exceptional …. employment gains, unemployment rate steady.

Still, its the seasonally adjusted data that garners the headlines (the SAD is on the first post)

As for the AUD, marked higher on the unemployment rate result: