Unemployment rate remained steady in September at 4.1%

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The jobless rate is holding steady with strong growth in full time jobs. The downside is it's pushed the likelihood of a cut to interest rates a little further down the road.

Transcript

00:00The Australian dream is one that more New Zealanders are chasing.

00:06A lot more opportunities, a lot more money, so I thought it was kind of a bit of a no-brainer for me.

00:13Russia is one of tens of thousands of Kiwis flocking to Australia in search of better career prospects.

00:20I'm noticing that a lot of my model friends, people in the industry, they're also moving over.

00:25Drawn in by more jobs on offer.

00:28That's a trend showing up in official figures, with 64,000 jobs added to the economy in September.

00:35The bulk of them in full-time roles.

00:38More people also decided to join the labour force to look for work, pushing the participation rate to a record high,

00:45which has kept the unemployment rate steady at 4.1 per cent.

00:49This is a remarkable achievement in the context of a slowing economy and a labour market that's expected to soften.

00:57When you look behind those figures, there are incredibly concerning trends.

01:02The public sector jobs growth is now outpacing the private sector.

01:07The strong result makes it unlikely the Reserve Bank will bring forward any cuts to interest rates.

01:13The RBA, I think, I think the first thing is it kind of removes or allays some of the fears of a more rapid deterioration in the labour market.

01:20There's no doubt there are people within the Reserve Bank who feel that until unemployment gets up to around the 4.5 per cent mark,

01:27they can't even think about cutting rates.

01:29Now, I'm not sure that is true, necessarily.

01:32The labour market is changing.

01:34Even more important than jobs figures is inflation data that comes out at the end of the month.

01:39These numbers will inform the Reserve Bank Board when they next meet on Melbourne Cup Day to decide on interest rates.

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