Australian February unemployment rate 3.7% (vs. 4.0% expected) | Forexlive

by Admin
March 21, 2024

That is a huge drop in the unemployment rate, and a huge number of jobs added.

The jobless rate has been assisted by the drop in the participation rate, but I wouldn’t go sullying the figures too much. Jobs data are volatile, but this is a great set of headlines. The Reserve Bank of Australia can keep rates higher for longer, if they wish to, on numbers like this.

Underutilisation rate (combining unemployed and underemployed people) down to 10.3% (from January’s 10.8%).
hours worked +2.8% m/m and +0.8% y/y

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All of the above numbers are the headline ‘seasonally adjusted’, and they’ve been volatile with reported issues surrounding figuring out the seasonality. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is wall-to-wall PhDs so you’d think they could figure it out. Anyway, sometimes the lesser-watched ‘trend’ numbers can be a better guide, and these are showing a steady unemployment rate and jobs added: