Some positive news on the employment front!

From ABC News - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/13/2898359.htm

Employment growth continues - 33,700 jobs added

April's employment figures show the jobs market remains strong, with the creation of 33,700 jobs last month.

However, the unemployment rate has remained steady at 5.4 per cent, as the workforce continues to grow.

The Bureau of Statistics revised last month's unemployment estimate up from 5.3 per cent to 5.4 per cent, seasonally adjusted, meaning that this month's unemployment rate is higher than the rate that was reported by the ABS last month.

The ABS April survey shows an additional 33,700 people in employment, with 37,500 extra full-time positions, and 3,900 fewer part-time jobs.

The job creation was slightly stronger than economists expected, with the average forecast among analysts surveyed by Bloomberg anticipating the creation of about 22,500 jobs.

Many economists had been tipping jobs growth to remain subdued for several months after very strong gains in late 2009 and the beginning of this year, when around 200,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate fell as low as 5.2 per cent in January.

The ANZ's job ads survey has also been more subdued in recent months, after recovering strongly last year.

The total number of hours worked fell 0.5 per cent during April, despite the rise in full-time employment.

Felicity Emmett, a senior economist at RBS, says the result shows the jobs market and Australian economy remain strong.

"Still quite solid data... We continue to expect that there will be further strengthening in employment over the next few months," she told Reuters.

"The RBA feels they have got rates back up to an average sort of level now. They are going to be happy to sit and wait for a couple of months to see how some of the domestic data play out."

Macquarie Group senior economist Brian Redican agrees employment growth is much better than expected.

"I think it's a big tick of confidence in the strength of the economy - the fact that we are able to create that many jobs each month and we've created about 100,000 jobs so far in 2010 - full-time jobs that is," he told ABC News.

"So that does suggest that the economy really is starting to compete at its full strength."

Financial markets were broadly pleased with the result, with the Australian dollar rising from 89.55 US cents just before the release to 89.89 US cents at 12:04pm (AEST).

Statistical errors

The vagaries of the monthly survey estimates are shown by the ABS standard error margins, which reflect the fact that the employment figures are based on a sample of the population, not the whole population.

The bureau is 95 per cent confident the actual employment change, across the Australian economy, is within the range of a fall of 19,700 jobs to a rise of 87,100 jobs, and there is a 95 per cent likelihood the actual unemployment rate is somewhere between 5.2 per cent and 5.6 per cent.

That is why it is also important to look at the more stable trend figures that better show the broad direction of employment levels.

The trend unemployment rate for April remained steady at 5.3 per cent.

State by state

In Western Australia the unemployment rate fell from a downwardly revised 5 per cent in March to 4.7 per cent in April, in seasonally-adjusted terms.

The number of people looking for work has fallen.

Queensland's unemployment rate has increased from 5.5 per cent in March to 5.6 per cent in April and the number of people looking for work has increased slightly.

In New South Wales the unemployment rate rose from 5.5 per cent in March to 5.8 per cent in April and the number of people looking for work rose slightly during the month.

Victoria's unemployment rate fell from 5.4 per cent in March to 5.3 per cent in April and the number of people looking for work during the month has also fallen slightly.

In the Northern Territory the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.2 per cent and the number of people looking for work fell slightly.

South Australia's unemployment rate increased from 5.4 per cent in March to 5.6 per cent in April and the number of people looking for work fell slightly.

Tasmania's unemployment rate increased from 5.8 per cent in March to 5.9 per cent in April

In the ACT the unemployment rate fell from 3.4 per cent in March to 3.3 per cent in April and the number of people looking for work remained steady.

Tags: business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends, unemployment, work, international-financial-crisis, australia

First posted Thu May 13, 2010 11:46am AEST