These figures always have more positive impact when full-time hiring is robust, so the disparity may explain some of the Australian Dollar’s reaction. The unemployment rate also edged up, to 5.5% from 5.4%. This was unexpected. Confusingly the overall participation rate did better, too, though. It edged up modestly to 65.7%.
Australian economy added jobs, but unemployment rate rose
- Thursday, Jan 18 2018
The Aussie economy added 34,700 jobs in December, massively ahead of the 15,000 forecast. Coming after a blockbuster set of November data this further surge might have been expected to boost the currency. But the devil appears to have been in the detail. Full-time jobs rose by ‘only’ 15,000, with part-time positions up by 19,500 (both were less than last month’s gains).