Australian employment rebounded in October to keep the jobless rate steady at 6.2 percent, though lingering concerns about the reliability of the data still led investors to sell the local dollar to four-year lows. Thursday's figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated employment rose 24,100 in October, recovering from a revised 23,700 drop the previous month. Encouragingly, all the gains came in full-time jobs which climbed 33,400.
While solid on the surface, the jobs survey has been plagued with so many problems in recent months that investors have lost confidence in the series. "Even with the ABS's best efforts to get the seasonal adjustment right, it will be a while before faith can be restored," said Michael Turner, a strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
"We will take it with a bag of salt, not just the grain." Not in doubt were the benefits of the latest slide in the Australian dollar which carved out a four-year trough of $0.8554 amid broad-based strength in its US counterpart. The fall will be warmly welcomed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) which has been agitating for a lower currency to help offset falling prices for the country's major commodity exports, which are priced in US dollars. With major chart support at $0.8640 now done and dusted, analysts see a risk of a protracted decline to a previous trough at $0.8385 and even as far as $0.8050.
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