Australia: Employment growth likely continued through May – RBC CM

Research Team at RBC Capital Markets, suggests that modest employment growth likely continued through May in Australia, and expect the headline rise to be of a similar magnitude as April (RBC: 10k).

Key Quotes 

“This is not quite enough to soak up labour supply at current rates of population growth (1.5%) and participation (64.9%), so we look for a 0.1ppt rise in the unemployment rate to 5.8%. The quarterly update on labour force underutilization will also be worth watching given this has suggested there is more slack in the labour market than the unemployment rate suggests.

NZ Q1 GDP (Thu): We expect that GDP grew 0.5%q/q, 2.6%y/y, supported by household spending and residential construction. Business investment is likely to remain muted given the decline in the terms of trade, which should also push national income growth weaker yet. Export volumes were also soft on the quarter and external demand likely detracted from growth.”