From Marketwatch, good news on the Aussie job front. Once again confirm the economy is doing much better than it's global peers.
Australia's unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 5.7% in September from 5.8% in August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. The print beat a consensus expectation for 5.9%, according to economist surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
The better-than-expected data followed the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision Tuesday to become the first Group-of-20 nation to raise interest rates, hiking by a quarter-point to 3.25%. See full story on Australian interest rate hike.
"It's pretty obvious the RBA had an advanced read on today's employment numbers and can now more easily justify the reason they pulled the rates trigger," said Ben Potter, research analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne, in emailed comments.
"The creation of 40,000 jobs against forecast losses of 10,000, and the unemployment rate falling to 5.7% would certainly seem to suggest we have seen peak unemployment, particularly given the positive reads from recent forward-looking indicators," Potter said.
The Australian dollar hit a fresh 14-month high following the data, according to Dow Jones Newswires, with the Aussie dollar trading at $0.9011 by mid-morning. Sydney-traded stocks also rose, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rising 1.6% to 4,770.1.
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