The number of jobs in Australia rose in June to its highest level this year as companies hired more full-time workers, but the unemployment rate remained steady as more people entered the labor force in a trend that curbed the need for wages gains.
The economy added 50.9K jobs today, beating expectations of only 17,000 jobs, including 41.2K a full-time jobs. This is the largest job addition since last November. Annual job growth rose to 2.8%, well ahead of the jobs creation of 1.6% in the United States.
The unemployment rate stood at 5.4%, while the participation rate jumped to 65.7%, slightly below its all-time high. As supply of labor continued to meet demand, upward pressure was lower on wages and inflation, so there was no near-term impact on interest rates from the Reserve Bank of Australia, which kept it unchanged at 1.5% for nearly two years.
