Australia: New jobs surge in March
Seasonally-adjusted employment increased by 25,700 in March from the previous month, following the revised 10,700 jobs added in February (previously reported: +4,600 jobs) and overshooting analysts’ expectations of a gain of 12,000. March’s reading was driven by a rise in full-time workers which more than offset a decline in part-time workers.
Seasonally-adjusted unemployment inched up to 5.0% in March from February’s 4.9%, which had represented the lowest reading in over seven years. However, this was due to an increase in the seasonally-adjusted participation rate, which inched up from 65.6% in February to 65.7%. Meanwhile, the seasonally-adjusted underemployment rate ticked up from the previous month’s 8.1% to 8.2% in March.
Markets reacted by driving the Australian dollar up, sustained by higher expectations that, due to the continuous strong labor data, the Reserve Bank of Australia won’t cut interest rates any time soon.