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Sep 20, 2019, 12:00 PM GMT
#UnemploymentRate

The Unemployment in Australia Increases Marginally for August

The unemployment rate in Australia rose unexpectedly by 0.1 points in August to 5.3 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in its monthly employment report, that was released on Thursday. The findings of the report perplexed analysists because the Australian labour market managed to add 34.7 thousand new jobs (seasonally adjusted), whereas the initial forecasts projected only 15.2 thousand new job openings.

Despite the better-than-expected labour performance, the number of unemployed persons also increased by 4.1 thousand, which was enough for the overall, seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment to rise from the recorded 5.2 per cent in July to 5.3 per cent in August. The observed increase is the first in four months.

Thus, these surprising developments in the Australian labour market pressured the Aussie, which lost momentum against all major currencies. The AUDUSD pair depreciated with 0.92 per cent in the two trading sessions following the release of the labour data, and in doing so, the pair tumbled back within the boundaries of the previous range.