Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 4.1% to 4.2% in July. That’s the highest since February 2022!

However, components of the report actually point to a stronger labor market for the month:

• A net of 58.2K jobs were added (vs. 20.2K expected) and June’s net additions were revised higher from 50.2K to 52.3K
• The labor force participation rate jumped from 66.90% to a record high of 67.10%
• Full-time employment rose by 60.5K while part-time jobs decreased by 2.3K
• Monthly hours worked for all jobs increased by 0.2% m/m higher from June

Link to Australian Labour Force Survey for July 2024

Kate Lamb, ABS head of labour statistics, detailed:

“Although the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point in each of the past two months, the record high participation rate and near record high employment-to-population ratio shows that there continues to be a high number of people in jobs, and looking for and finding jobs.”

The employment-to-population ratio also edged 0.1% higher to 64.3%, indicating that employment growth grew faster than population growth.

Link to ABS’ August media release

Market Reactions

Australian Dollar vs. Major Currencies: 5-min

Overlay of AUD vs. Major Currencies Chart by TradingView

The Australian dollar, which started edging lower at the start of the day, saw sharp and broad-based gains at the report’s release.

The Aussie is holding on to its gains two hours after the employment data releases. It’s seeing the most gains against safe havens like the U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, and Swiss franc and is still in the green against fellow “risk” currencies like the British pound and the Canadian and New Zealand dollars.