Australian employment fell in June as the global recession reduced demand for exports such as iron ore and coal, prompting mining companies to fire workers.
The number of people employed dropped 21,400 from May, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The median estimate of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a decline of 20,000.
The jobless rate rose to 5.8 per cent, the highest level in almost six years, from 5.7 per cent.
Central bank Governor Glenn Stevens left borrowing costs at a half-century low of 3 per cent this week for a third month to help stem firings at companies including BHP Billiton.
Advertisements for job vacancies tumbled in June for a 14th month, a sign unemployment may rise in coming months.
“Full-time employment continues to fall so there is weakness there,” said Brian Redican, a senior economist at Macquarie Group Ltd. in Sydney. Still, the “rate of deterioration hasn’t increased as most people thought.”
The number of full-time jobs dropped 21,900 in June and part-time employment increased 400, today’s report showed.
The currency has jumped 8.5 per cent in the past three months, making it the second-best performer against the US dollar among the currencies of the major industrialized nations.
Australia’s economy has so far skirted the worst global recession since the Great Depression.
Gross domestic product rose 0.4 per cent in the first quarter, making it one of the few major economies including China and India to expand.
Consumer confidence jumped to the highest level since December 2007 and home-loan approvals rose for an eighth month, reports showed yesterday.
“Leading indicators suggest we should be losing around 30,000 to 40,000 jobs per month, so the Reserve Bank would be happy with the recent performance of the labour market where trend losses are just 5,000 per month,” said Spiros Papadopoulos, an economist at National Australia Bank in Melbourne.
To help boost employment and cushion the economy against slower global demand for natural resources, central bank policy makers slashed the overnight cash rate target by a record 4.25 percentage points to 3 per cent between September and April.
Bloomberg