Employment jumps

The ABS is out with its April Labour Force survey and the news is better (if awfully topsy turvy):

Employment increased 50,100 (0.4%) to 11,663,200. Full-time employment increased 34,500 to 8,159,700 and part-time employment increased 15,600 to 3,503,500
Unemployment decreased 2,700 (0.4%) to 685,300. The number of persons looking for full-time work remained steady at 502,800 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 2,700 to 182,500
The unemployment rate at 5.5%
The participation rate increased 0.2 pts to 65.3% after a revised March estimate
Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 10.9 million hours to 1,643.3 million hours.

This was well ahead of consensus. Given recent volatility I think it best to stick to the trend numbers which suggests a slowly rising unemployment rate.

The dollar rose half a cent which no doubt will have the usual dills claiming RBA failure.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.