MNI BRIEF: Aussie Labour Market Strong, Adds 64k Jobs
MNI (SYDNEY) - Australia continued to show strong jobs growth in September, adding over 64,000 positions, higher than the 25,000 market expectation, while the unemployment rate tightened 10 basis points to 4.1%, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has forecasted unemployment to reach 4.3% by the December quarter.
Monthly hours worked, a key consideration for the RBA to understand potential weakness in the labour market, increased to 1,965 million. (See MNI POLICY: RBA Watches Data For Downside Inflation Risk)
“Employment has risen by 3.1% in the past year, growing faster than the civilian population growth of 2.5%,” said Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS. “This has contributed to the increase in the employment-to-population ratio by 0.1 percentage point, and 0.4 pp over the past year, to a new historical high of 64.4%."
The record employment-to-population ratio and participation rate shows there are large numbers of people entering the labour force and finding work in a range of industries, he added.