The June labour market survey data from the ABS released this morning has (once again) exceeded market expectations; although it’s not all great news.
Employment lifted by 29,100 in the month and is now up 6.3% from a year ago (or 777,900 more people employed than at this stage last year) and the unemployment rate dropped again to 4.9% which is its lowest rate since Dec 2010. Participation also improved slightly (to 66.2) which sees the employment to working age population reach a new record high of 63%.
However, while we have more people employed than ever before the numbers of hours worked per capita has dipped slightly in June; down from 86.86 in May to 85.22 in June (largely driven by the lock-down in Victoria during early June).
In Queensland the data also looked very strong. Employment lifted by 16,700 which is 9.7% higher than a year earlier. Full-time employment was up 18,800 for the month but the rate of growth of full-time positions remains somewhat below the average (+9.5% y/y). The unemployment rate in Queensland fell to its lowest level since April 2009 at just 5.1% while participation increased to a 9-year high at 66.7. But here too we saw a slight dip in hours worked per capita; down to 89.08 from 89.91 last month.
Next week the ABS will release their original regional labour market data at which timer we will update the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Regional Employment Trend & s.a. series for Queensland.