Australian Dollar Rockets Up on News of Excellent Employment Report

THE TAKEAWAY: Aussie Employment Gains 44.0 K Jobs > Employment Change Far Above Expected > AUDUSD Jumps, but Loses Some Gains as Traders Await Chinese Growth Data.

Employment data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show an addition of 44,000 jobs to the Aussie economy, causing the unemployment rate to stay at 5.2 percent. The rise in jobs drew mostly from part time work, which added 28,200 jobs to payroll. Full time work experienced a 15,800 increase in workers. The overall participation rate rose to 65.4 percent from 65.2 percent a month earlier.

Analysts expected the unemployment rate to rise this month and a modest 6,500 job increase in total employment. Neither analysts nor the markets expected an improvement of such magnitude this month, and traders were forced to price in the change, forcefully boosting the AUDUSD upward. In the moments after the report’s release, AUDUSD rocketed from 1.0301 to 1.0366. However, China’s GDP data, due out Friday morning, was of greater interest to traders. Analysts have widely forecasted a slowdown in the country’s growth rate which, in addition to general risk aversion trends, caused the AUDUSD to lose some of its gains.