AU Unemployment Rate

There are fresh warnings that Australia's economy is on a path toward a recession. Australians who have hit the pavement in search of a job recently might have found it tough going, as bosses preference those already on staff for new roles. "Companies are focusing, at the moment, more on their retention strategy than attraction," Robert Half director Nicole Gorton said. "So if they have the opportunity to … upskill because there's an opportunity gap with somebody and they can plug that with the existing staff, they will do that." ...

video Ross Greenwood says Australia’s unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.1 per cent. “It’s likely to come in steady at 4.1 per cent, and again, this leaves Australia’s unemployment rate not taking off, not rising,” Mr Greenwood said. “Which again would justify significant cuts in interest rates very soon here.”

There is no need to debate whether it was tightening by the Bank of Japan or the fourth consecutive rise in the US unemployment rate that spurred the dramatic market reaction at the start of last week. It seems reasonable that both played a role. And the dramatic unwinding of short yen positions, which appeared to help fuel a recovery of the Swiss franc, Chinese yuan began before the Bank of Japan meeting and the US employment report. Moreover, on the eve of the July 31 BOJ and FOMC meetings, the derivatives market had two Fed rate ...

Ahead of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) June labour force release later today, Jobs & Skills Australia published its internet vacancy index (IVI), which plunged by 4.2% in June to be down 18.1% year-on-year. It was the “strongest monthly decline since September 2022”, with online job advertisements 50,200 lower than June 2023. Recruitment activity decreased across all states and territories and across all skill-level groups. The following chart from Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro shows the broad-based decline in job ...

Financial markets have given up much hope of rate cuts in Australia this year, so today's decent labour report won't have caused too much of a stir. Total employment in May rose by 39,700. This was more than the 30,000 expected, and slightly stronger than the 37,400 increase in April. Unlike April's number, all of the employment in May came from full-time jobs. These provide not only better wages but better perks and are, as a result, more positive for consumer sentiment. Earlier in the day, we also got CBA household spending data, ...