Australian April jobs solid: Jobless rate ticks down to 5.7%, beats estimate

Australian April employment report came much better-than expected, with the employment change at 37.4k vs 5.0k exp and 60k prior, with full time job creation at -11.6k vs 73.9k last, while part time jobs came at 49.0k vs -13.6k. The participation rate ticked higher to 64.8 %, while the unemployment rate improved to 5.7% vs 5.9%.  

Key points

TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

Employment increased 19,900 to 12,071,300. Unemployment increased 1,700 to 744,400. Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8%. Participation rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 64.8%. Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 2.0 million hours (0.12%) to 1,663.6 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

Employment increased 37,400 to 12,099,300. Full-time employment decreased 11,600 to 8,227,400 and part-time employment increased 49,000 to 3,871,900. Unemployment decreased 19,100 to 732,300. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 12,300 to 514,200 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 6,800 to 218,000. Unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 pts to 5.7%. Participation rate remained steady at 64.8%. Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 4.3 million hours (0.26%) to 1,659.5 million hours.

IMPACT OF CYCLONE DEBBIE ON ESTIMATES

The damage caused by Cyclone Debbie in Queensland resulted in a marginal increase in the sample loss in the Fitzroy region in April 2017, of less than 20 dwellings. This did not have any observable impact on estimates for Queensland.