Despite a weak third quarter economic performance, Australia has made a jump to provide 39,100 jobs in November. Performing excellently before the year's end, the unemployment rate has improved to 5.7% given the huge reduction in male labor underutilization and with most 15-64 year olds looking for work or are currently still employed.
According to DailyFX, the Australian Dollar was initially weak against the US dollar after the quarter-percent increase by the US Federal Reserve. Overcoming market expectations with a 5.7 percent unemployment rate decrease, Australia's economy beat back a little. Another reading indicates the participation level of employees -the active workforce without redundancies - became lower from 64.6 percent to 64.4 percent, indicating many employees are "sidelined" rather than laid off.
Analysts are positive that interest rates in Australia will continue to be positive and remain in status quo given the current employment data. According to Business Insider Australia, the underemployment rate is now at its lowest since August 2015 to 8.3% from 8.7%. It also reports that male labor underutilization dropped by 0.3 percent to 12.3%.
Corporate, manufacturing and construction activities are still at a record low for Australia despite a positive employment outlook. Australian GDP is down to 0.5% with local goods and services inflated by 1.8%. The current growth slowdown could force ratings company S&P Global to downgrade the country if budgets are further undercut by economic maladies.
Analysts pointed out that Australian consumer and employment activity is sluggish at best. Commsec Chief Economist Craig James said political uncertainty all over the world and bad economic outlooks have created a perfect storm for Australia's third quarter performance. He said Australia did not spend, invest and employ enough to help the economy grow - making Christmas a likely economic booster with temporal jobs and more spending.
Last November, a number of companies have helped create jobs in Western Australia. The National Broadband Network planned a rollout and update of its new network infrastructure that delivered 500 jobs to the region. The project is slated to finish by 2020.
