Australian Unemployment Improved in April

Unemployment Rate

Consensus	Actual	Previous
5.9%	5.4%	5.7%

Employment Change

Consensus	Actual	Previous
-25 K	27.3 K	-37.2 K

• Unemployment decreased by 35,300 to 614,600. 
• The number of persons looking for full-time work was down 17,800 to 443,500
• Number of persons looking for part-time work eased 17,400 to 171,100
• Male Unemployment rate decreased 0.2% to 5.5%
• Female unemployment rate decreased 0.4% to 5.%
• Participation rate was inline with forecasts at 65.4%, easing slightly from 65.5%
• AIG performance of construction index came with a score of 36.5 in April, up from 30.3 in March. 

This came WAY…. better than expected.  Not sure if this data is accurate or not but it seems like Australia’s economy is recovering better than expected with the lagging indicator “unemployment”, leading well ahead of sentiments. This does compliment well with the April’s 2.2% gain in retail sales numbers.

Source: FX Street