- Australia adds 37.4K jobs in the month of December
- Unemployment fell to 6.1% vs 6.3% expected
- Australian Dollar Rallies post data release
Heading into the December jobs report, the market expected that Australian Employment Figures would increase by 5K. However, the actual print was significantly better than expected with the country adding 37.4K jobs last month, which was roughly 32K more than expected. While the surprise number was not as large as November’s, the bulk of the most recent reading’s increase came from the full-time figures - which added a whopping 41.6K jobs compared to part time which actually lost 4.1K jobs. This may be due in part to the diminished demand for part-time subsides as the holidays conclude. With the rise in payrolls, the unemployment rate extended its retreat from the 12-year high set in October. The jobless rate fell to 6.1% vs 6.3% expected.
Australian economic data has been above economists’ expectations over the past four weeks. Currency Strategist Ilya Spivak mentioned in his weekly forecast for the Australian Dollar that if December’s job data ends up improving over expectations, such an outcome may pour cold water on building RBA interest rate cut speculation which could in turn engender support for the Aussie Dollar. Such may be the case today as the data was significantly higher than the consensus. After the data hit the wires, the AUDUSD rose as much as 78 pips to hit 0.8221.
