The Employment Numberwang Confuses The Markets Upwards!

Fickle investors are no longer pricing the possibility of another cash rate rise from the RBA after data released overnight showed US inflation cooled to 3.4 per cent in April, putting an end to a three-month streak of hotter-than-expected US CPI data; and the Australian Employment numbers from the ABS peak up to an unemployment rate of 4.1%, from a revised 3.9% last month.

This bad news is good news drove the ASX 1.65 per cent higher today, and the US markets already went into record territory, again on the falling inflation read.

Now I have been highlighting that the unemployment series from the ABS has been unreliable, with significant swings month on month. This time the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported an unusually large jump in the number of unemployed people who were waiting to start a new job, amid broader signs the jobs market remains strong and is easily absorbing a surge in migrant workers on one hand, but we know from other data the number of job opening are falling. About 7.1 per cent of unemployed people last month had a job they were waiting to start, which was a record compared to previous April periods, the ABS said.

Nothing really new here – recall that the in January, unemployment increased to 4.1 per cent due to a surge in the number of jobless people waiting to start work, it fell back to 3.7 per cent the following month when they officially became employed.

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Author: Martin North

Martin North is the Principal of Digital Finance Analytics

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