AUD: Unemployment down, but the details are disappointing – HSBC

Research Team at HSBC, notes that the Australia’s Unemployment rate edged lower in September, from 5.7% (revised up from 5.6% previously) to 5.6%.

Key Quotes

“But this wasn't driven by a strong labour market; employment actually fell by 10k. Rather, another sharp drop in participation meant the labour force shrank. The other standout feature of the data is the continued shift from full-time to part-time employment.

Full-time jobs fell 53k in September and are down 0.4% y-o-y. Part-time jobs rose 43k and are up 5.4% y-o-y. Because of this trend, measures of labour underutilisation have not improved as much as the unemployment rate over the past year. The labour market and wage growth do appear to have stabilised, but there are few signs yet of significant improvement.”