The unemployment expectations index rose 0.7% in Jan following on from 4.6% rise in Dec and a 0.9% rise in Nov and a 0.6% rise in Oct.
The index is now 5.2% higher in the year and just 3.8% lower than where it was in Jun which had been looking like being a cyclical peak. The index has deteriorated since September (a fall in the index suggests consumers are not expecting unemployment to rise as much as they were) rising 6.8%.
Unemployment expectations have started 2014 on a decidedly less upbeat trend than where they were in late 2013.
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.
