Employment increased 20,700 to 12,814,800 persons. Full-time employment increased 14,700 to 8,793,900 persons and part-time employment increased 6,100 to 4,020,900 persons. Unemployment increased 6,100 to 689,600 persons. Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.1%. Participation rate remained steady at 65.7%. Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 5.6 million hours to 1,786.0 million hours. SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES Employment increased 28,400 to 12,822,900 persons. Full-time employment decreased 6,300 to 8,792,700 persons and part-time employment increased 34,700 to 4,030,200 persons. Unemployment increased ... (full story)

The AUD/USD pair slipped to 0.6893 – the lowest level since Jan. 3 – on the back of a bigger-than-expected jump in Australia's unemployment rate. The official data released soon before press time showed the jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2% in April, beating the expected print of 5.1%. The previous month's print was also revised higher to 5.1% from 5.0%. Further, the economy added 28.4K jobs in April, beating the estimate of 14.0K by a big margin. The big beat on the headline figure isn't helping the AUD as the Full-Time Employment dipped by 6.3K, following a 48.3K rise in March. With the full-time jobs and ... (full story)