The Australian economy has recorded the fifteenth consecutive month of employment gains, as employers expanded both full-time and part-time positions. The run of monthly consecutive gains has exceeded the 14 month stretch from August 1979 to September 1980 and it is equal to the 15 months of gains from May 1993 to July 1994.
The ABS released employment estimates for December which indicate the total number of people employed in Australia in either full-time or part-time work increased by 34,700. Market expectations prior to the report’s release were for 15,000 new positions.
Bond yields finished the day higher. 3 year and 10 year bond yields each gained 3bps to finish at 2.25% and 2.82% respectively. In currency markets the Aussie initially dropped by 0.3 U.S. cents to 79.55 U.S. cents before it finished around 79.50 U.S. cents.
The participation rate increased from 65.5% to a near-record 65.7% as an additional 55,200 people entered the labour market. While total employment increased, the total number of unemployed also increased (by 20,500) and thus the unemployment rate rose from 5.4% to 5.5%.