Australian employment rises at stronger rate in November, jobless rate falls to 5.2 pct

Australian employment recorded the strongest monthly gain in more than a year in November. Employment rose 39.9k in the month, after it dropped 24.8k in October. Most of the gain was seen in part-time employment, recording a rise of 35.7k. Full-time jobs rose only 4.2k.

The aggregate hours worked rose 2.9m in November, but this was not sufficient to entirely reverse the fall seen in the prior month.

The participation rate came in stable at 66 percent, although there was a 0.1 percentage point improvement in male participation.

The jobless rate dropped to 5.2 percent. It has fluctuated between 5.2 percent and 5.3 percent in the last eight months. The underemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent.

Most of the employment gains in November were seen in Queensland and Victoria, recording a rise of 17.3k and 13.7k, respectively.

Jobless rates dropped throughout all three eastern states in November but remained flat to rising elsewhere. The ACT, over the year, has seen the strongest employment growth and maintains the lowest jobless rate, benefitting from the public sector strength, said ANZ in a research report.

“While we expect employment growth to slow materially, in time, the surprising strength of November’s labour market report is a significant challenge to our expectation that the RBA will cut in February”, added ANZ.