Australia jobs data mixed, employment beats expectations, but full-time employment declines sharply

Australia’s January jobs report released by the national statistics bureau earlier on Thursday posted a rather mixed picture. Australian employers added more workers than expected. In seasonally adjusted terms, overall employment rose by 13,500 to 11,998,200 in January, following a revised gain of 16,300 the previous month and beating expectations for an increase of 9,700.

However, gains in employment were driven by part-time jobs while sharp decline was seen in full-time employment in January. Part-time jobs surged by 58,300 during the month, offsetting a sharp decline in full-time workers, which tumbled by 44,800. Over the past year, part-time employment grew by 159,400, or 4.3 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, full-time employment fell by 56,000, or 0.7 percent.

The unemployment rate ticked down to 5.7 percent in January, as workforce participation edged down to 64.6 percent from 64.7percent. Despite the drop in full-time employment, the ABS said that total hours worked rose by 10.2 million hours to 1.6827 billion hours.

The labour market report no doubt confirms the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) in its cautious, neutral approach. The RBA is unlikely to be totally satisfied with the January labour market report. Also, a strong exchange rate might complicate the process of structural change in the economy away from the commodity sector.

The Australian dollar was little changed following the report, and was last seen trading at 0.7714 U.S. Australia’s stock market opened lower on Thursday, with the S&P/ASX declining 0.2 percent.