Employment

Employment saw another solid gain of 44.0k in seasonally adjusted terms in January, following an upwardly revised increase of 60.0k in the previous month. The unemployment rate ticked up by 0.1ppts to 4.1% in seasonally adjusted terms, but was unchanged at 4.0% in trend terms.

December was another solid month for the Aussie labour market with seasonally adjusted employment rising 56.3k (mkt exp. 15.0k). This was partly offset by a small downward revision of the November increase to 28.2k. Western Australia’s labour market is the strongest of all the states by several measures, including having the fastest annual employment growth and lowest unemployment rate of 3.3%.

Seasonally adjusted employment rose 35.6k in November, somewhat more than the 25.0k expected by market participants. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate unexpectedly declined 0.2ppts to 3.9%, while the market consensus had pencilled in a 0.1ppts uptick to 4.2%.

Employment growth slowed to 15.9k in October, missing the market expectations of a 25.0k gain. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was steady at 4.1%, in line with expectations. Despite the rise, the Western Australian unemployment rate remained low at 4.0%.

Employment saw another outsized increase of 64.1k in September. This gain was double the 25.0k pencilled in by the market consensus and the largest since February. It followed a 42.6k increase in August (revised slightly down from 47.5k).

Employment saw another big rise of 47.5k in August, significantly more than the 26.0k expected by market participants. The July gain was revised down to a still solid 48.9k (originally 58.2k). The annual rate of employment growth slowed 0.2ppts to 2.7%.