As reported by Houses and Holes earlier today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released labour force data for the month of May, which revealed more strong jobs growth.
In seasonally adjusted terms, total employment increased 38,900 (0.3%) to 11,537,900. Full-time employment increased 46,100 (0.6%) to 8,107,900 and part-time employment decreased 7,200 (-0.2%) to 3,430,100.
The below chart shows the changes in these components since August 2008. As you can see, this month’s employment gain of 38,900 persons caps-off three good months for the Australian labour market. The only caveats are that last month’s gain of 15,500 persons was revised down in this release to 7,000, the aggregate number of hours worked fell, and underemployment rose over the quarter (more on these points below).
The total level of employment in Australia has again reached an all-time high, surpassing last month’s peak:
On a rolling annual basis, employment growth was 1.0% in May, and has clearly recovered from the low of -0.01% reached in December 2011:
Despite the creation of 38,900 jobs – and increase of 0.3% – the headline unemployment rate rose by 0.1% to 5.1%. This is primarily because the labour force participation rate by 0.4%, more than ofsseting the employment gain (see below chart).
As mentioned above, one negative from the release is that the aggregate number of hours worked fell by -4.7 million hours in May, although it has risen by 11.7 million hours over the past three months:
The annual change in aggregate hours worked has also increased marginally – up 0.9% in the 12 months to May 2012, with Western Australia leading the charge (up 6.1%):
Another negative is that underemployment, as measured by the labour underutilisation rate, rose marginally by 0.1% to 12.6%, led by Victoria (13.4%) and South Australia (13.4%), with Western Australia (10.0%) bucking the trend:
At the state level, New South Wales (+30,300) created the most jobs over the month, whereas Queensland (-5,700) lost jobs:
Over the year, however, Western Australia has dominated, contributing 45% of Australia’s new jobs:
Reflecting its status as Australia’s resources capital, Western Australia has by far the lowest unemployment rate in the nation (3.6%). By contrast, Tasmania (6.6%) and Queensland (5.7%) are the laggards:
So overall it’s another strong result which, when viewed in light of yesterday’s strong March headline GDP print, must count against the Reserve Bank of Australia further lowering interest rates at its next meeting.
