Australian May unemployment rate 4.0% (vs. 4.0% expected)

The jobless rate held steady at 4%, but jobs added surged well ahead of expectations at up nearly 40K (30K expected). And, all full time.

This is a good report, although questions over the veracity of these figures has been around for a long while now (seasonal adjustment questions) and they won’t go away with this swing today.

But, enouigh, of the moping about … the participation rate is up as well, which adds further shine to these numbers.

More:

• underemployment rate remained at 6.7%
• underutilisation rate 10.7%
• monthly hours worked decreased to 1,951 million

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All of those figures above are the ‘seasonally adjusted’ numbers. Some folks prefer the ‘trend’ numbers that the Australian Bureau of Statistics publish as well:

• unemployment rate increased to 4.0%.
• participation rate remained at 66.7%.
• employment increased to 14,355,100.
• employment to population ratio remained at 64.1%.
• underemployment rate remained at 6.7%.
• monthly hours worked increased to 1,958 million.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.