Australia's unemployment rate eased to 5.5 percent in April, data showed Thursday, beating expectations by creating 50,100 jobs despite a slowdown in the mining-driven economy. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the jobless rate fell 0.1 percentage points from 5.6 percent in March, outdoing analyst forecasts that unemployment would hold steady.
The number of jobs created - 50,100 - was well ahead of the 12,000 consensus, and saw the Australian dollar surge to US $1.0248 from US $1.0189, with the market perceiving it as proof of unexpected resilience. "Obviously the numbers have been very volatile in recent months, but if you look through that at the trend, employment does look as though its been improving since the beginning of the year," said HSBC Australia economist Paul Bloxham, adding that further interest rate cuts now seemed less likely.
Employment Minister Bill Shorten said an "impressive" 960,000 jobs had been created since the centre-left Labour government's election in 2007, despite the global downturn and ongoing weakness in most advanced economies. Shorten conceded there were likely to be difficult times ahead as Australia undergoes a significant economic transition away from mining.
"While Australia starts this transition from a position of impressive resilience, there may be bumps along the way in the labour market, as non-mining investment takes a bit of time to respond to lower interest rates," said Shorten. The Reserve Bank of Australia slashed interest rates to 2.75 percent this week - a record low not seen since the establishment of the bank in 1959 - in a bid to stimulate the economy as it diversifies away from the mining sector.