"The latest labour force release shows continued growth in trend part-time employment with decreases in full-time employment. This is the 11th consecutive month with part-time employment increases, and fourth consecutive month with full-time employment decreases"
- ABS
According to the report issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian employment change advanced in May, outperforming economists' expectations. Employment change went up to a seasonally adjusted 17.9K, up from the 10.8K recorded in the previous month. The outstanding release came after analysts had been forecasting Australian employment change to increase 15.0K in May. Concerning the market expectations, the unemployment rate in Australia remained unchanged at 5.7% during the last month, having recorded the same data in April.
The following data signals that record-low interest rates proved to be highly useful, reviving industries like construction, tourism and education that is helping Australia to absorb unemployed miners as a resource boom is starting to show downward tendency. Still, the outlook for business investment remains doubtful due to the gloomy projections over China, Australia's biggest trading partner. Meanwhile, the economy expanded 3.1% at an annual pace in the first quarter while the unemployment was below its mean over the previous two decades. Meanwhile, the Aussie is trading near 74 US cents after having lost 68 cents in January and risen to 78 cents in the intervening period.
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