By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — An unchanged monthly reading of Australia’s unemployment rate sent the Australian dollar surging and also helped lift stocks into positive territory on Thursday..
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed at 5.1% in September, unchanged from the previous month.
The overall unemployment rate reading matched economists’ expectations, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires, but the 49,500 rise in the number of employed to 11.32 million took the market by surprise.
Economists had been expecting a rise of 20,000 in the number of employed, according to the Dow Jones survey. Unemployment increased 2,400, or 0.4%, to 611,000, the data showed.
“Plenty more people went in search for jobs in September, and it appears that the majority found them. The bottom line is that the workforce has swelled, with 11.3 million Australians now holding jobs,” said Craig James, chief economist at CommSec.
After the data, the S&P/ASX 200 index (AU:XJO 4,691, +4.52, +0.10%) climbed into positive territory and ended 0.1% higher at 4,691.30.
The Australian dollar (AUDUSD 0.9882, +0.0108, +1.1055%) jumped after the data to trade at 98.31 U.S. cents, up 0.7%, as it continued to edge ever closer to parity with the U.S. dollar.
The market had increased the chance of a November rate hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia rose from 38% to 67% after the data, said James at CommSec.
“While the economy is patchy and there are doubts on the global economy, it may not be able to take chances on inflation remaining low with the job market tightening,” he said.
