The ABS released the September Labour Force figures which came in less than the 10k increase which was expected. Commonwealth Bank said the drop does not change the underlying resilience of employment growth as the Australian economy transitions from mining investment and construction to non-mining activities.
The unemployment rate remained steady at 6.2% while the participation rate fell 0.2% to 64.9%.
Seasonally adjusted jobs fell 5.1k to 11.8m, the result of a fall of 13.9k full time jobs and an increase of 8.9k in part-time jobs. Total employment 2.0% in the year to September. Seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 12.2m hours in September 2015 to 1,638m hours, or by approximately 0.7% for the month and 2.5% for the year. Commonwealth Bank saw the rise in hours worked as “another positive in today’s data in terms of labour market solidity”.
There is more controversy surrounding the employment data as the former Australian statistics chief said prior to the release, “The results of the last six months aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, so why are we wasting millions of taxpayers’ money on the survey?” He said since early 2014 the ABS has effectively produced a different statistical series to what existed previously. Westpac was less harsh in its verdict saying, “We know the ABS is making significant adjustments to the underlying data to remove the volatility but this is a bit of a black box.”
The states with the lowest rates of unemployment were NSW (5.9%), W.A. (6.1%) and Victoria (6.2%) with NSW continuing its role as the largest employer of Australians. The state with the highest unemployment remains South Australia with a rate of 7.7%, which is down 0.2% from the previously recorded 7.9%.
