Article by ForexTime

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that nearly 60,000 jobs were created on net last month — about quadruple the figure expected — driven by 40,000 full-time positions. The unemployment rate fell to 5.9 per cent from 6.2 per cent.

The Aussie dollar jumped 1.1 per cent to $0.7140, the Reserve Bank of Australia won’t be cutting rates in 2015, and perhaps not in February, either, as many had expected.

The ongoing strength in trend employment growth (now running at +19,000 jobs a month) is consistent with the economy continuing to hold up reasonably well.

Thursday’s data offered evidence that record low rates and a weak currency were lifting the labour-intensive service sectors of the economy out of the hole left by a mining slump. The annual pace of employment growth even surpassed that of the United States, where recent payrolls strength had all but assured a hike in interest rates next month.

The breakdown of the jobs report was upbeat with 40,000 new full-time positions. The annual pace of employment growth accelerated to 2.7 percent, compared to 2.0 percent in the U.S.
Meanwhile, growth in hours worked climbed to a seven-year high in a sign the economy was speeding up after a sluggish start to the year.

However, some analysts cautioned that the jobs data were volatile and have had measurement problems in the past, but noted other indicators of labour demand had been improving for some months.

Article by ForexTime

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