The Australian economy has recorded another month of employment gains but the run of monthly consecutive gains has finally come to an end. Total employment rose for sixteen consecutive months, which is the longest stretch of months in Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) records going back to 1978.
The ABS has released employment estimates for March which indicate the total number of people employed in Australia in either full-time or part-time work increased by 4,900. Market expectations prior to the report’s release were for 20,000 new positions to be created. February’s figures were revised down from +17,500 to -6,300, thus ending the string of months in which employment had grown.
Westpac economist Simon Murray described the result as “soft” and the “revisions add further evidence that momentum has come out of the jobs market.” To some degree, he thought this result inevitable as the pace of employment growth “in 2017 was not sustainable”. However, he expects 2018 to produce further gains as “positive business conditions and economic activity point to a year of decent jobs growth.”
Over at ANZ they generally agreed. ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett said, “The slowdown in employment growth comes on the back of a very strong run through 2017 and with labour market leading indicators remaining positive, there are still reasons to be optimistic about the outlook for employment and unemployment this year.”