Australia reported a drop of 2.9K in employment against an expected rise of 4K. The unemployment rate ticked up from 6.1% to 6.2%, as expected.
The small misses were coupled with positive revisions, so after the initial drop, the pair drifted back up towards the round 0.80 level. The battle continues.
Looking into the report, we have a drop of 21.9K full time jobs and a rise of 19K part time ones. However, the rise in the unemployment rate is paired with a rise in the participation rate to 64.9%, so it’s not all bad.
While the report for April was somewhat disappointing, Australia’s excellent jobs report for March looks even better now. The gain in jobs was revised up from 37.7K to 48.1K. This includes mostly an upwards revision in full time jobs.
AUD/USD, which had already retreated from 0.80, fell as low as 0.7921 on the news, but rose back up towards 0.80 afterwards. At the time of writing, it stands at 0.7980.
It has been a busy week for the A$: the RBA cut the interest rate but hinted at a long pause. This resulted in an upwards move for the currency.
More:
- AUD/USD: Next Leg Higher Underway?
- AUD/USD: Weekly Shooting Star: Levels & Targets – SocGen
