Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed that Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.2% in July. This is the highest level since February 2022!
However, the components of the report actually point to a stronger labor market during the month:
- 58.2K net jobs added (vs. 20.2K expected) Net additions in June were revised from 50.2K to 52.3K
- the labor force participation rate Jumped from 66.90% to an all-time high of 67.10%
- Full time work Up 60.5k Part time jobs Decreased by 2.3 thousand
- Monthly working hours All jobs rose 0.2% on a monthly basis, higher than in June.
Link to the Australian Labour Force Survey July 2024
Kate Lamb, Head of Labour Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, explained:
“Although the unemployment rate has risen 0.1 percentage point in each of the past two months, the record-high participation rate and nearly double-digit employment-to-population ratio show that there are a large number of people looking for and finding jobs.”
The employment-to-population ratio rose 0.1 percentage points to 64.3 percent, indicating that employment growth was faster than population growth.
Link to ABS press release August
Market Reactions
Australian Dollar vs Major Currencies: 5 minutes
Comparison between the Australian Dollar and major currencies Chart by TradingView
The Australian dollar, which had started to decline at the beginning of the day, saw sharp and broad-based gains upon the release of the report.
The Australian dollar holds onto its gains two hours after the jobs data. The Aussie is seeing its biggest gains against safe havens like the US dollar, Japanese yen and Swiss franc, and is still in the green against other “risk” currencies like the British pound, Canadian dollar and New Zealand dollar.