Australia: New jobs jump in August
September 13, 2018
Seasonally-adjusted employment increased by 44,000 in August compared to the previous month, following the revised 4,300 jobs shed in July (previously reported: -3,900 jobs) and easily overshooting analysts’ expectations for a gain of 15,000. August’s reading was driven by an increase of both part-time and full-time workers.
Seasonally-adjusted unemployment remained stable at July’s six-year low of 5.3% in August. Meanwhile, the trend participation rate inched up from 65.6% in July to 65.7%, nearly matching the record high recorded in January. Adding to the good news, the quarterly seasonally-adjusted underemployment rate dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 8.1%, a potentially encouraging development for wage growth going forward. Recently released data on quarter-on-quarter wage growth in Q2 shows that the pace of growth in salaries, although still unremarkable, gained strength thanks to strong demand for labor.
Australia Unemployment Rate Forecast
FocusEconomics panelists expect the unemployment rate to average 5.3% in 2018 and 5.2% in 2019, unchanged from last month’s forecast.
