The Australian Bureau of Statistics has just released its Labour Force survey for March and the result is another consensus buster, which was expecting 2,500 jobs and got:
- Employment increased 18,100 to 11,553,200. Full-time employment decreased 22,100 to 8,029,100 and part-time employment increased 40,200 to 3,524,000.
- Unemployment decreased 29,900 (4.0%) to 713,200. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 16,700 to 509,800 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 13,300 to 203,400.
- The unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.8%, based on unrounded estimates.
- Participation rate decreased 0.2 pts to 64.7%.
- Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 8.0 million hours (0.5%) to 1,617.2 million hours.
Detail is less strong than headline but the dollar immediately piled on half a cent and smashed through 94 cents to 94.3. Release the bullhawks!
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