MNI BRIEF: Aussie Unemployment Rises To 4.1% In April
The Australian unemployment rate rose 4.1% in April, up from the prior month’s revised 3.9% and 20 basis points higher than expected, while employment grew by 30,900, stronger than the market’s 23,000 forecast, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia expects unemployment to reach 4.0% by the June quarter.
"The increases in both employment and unemployment in April saw the participation rate up by 0.1 percentage point to 66.7% in April,” said Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS. “It has been relatively high, above 66.5%, since March 2023.”
The RBA will likely focus strongly on underutilisation and wage growth to gauge labour market strength alongside the unemployment rate, MNI reported this week. (See MNI INTERVIEW: Chance RBA Hikes Again - Ex Senior Official)