Australia employment grew 29.1k to 12.9m in January, slightly below expectation of 30.2k. That’s also the fourth consecutive monthly growth in jobs. Full time employment rose 59k to 8.82m. Part-time employment dropped -29.8k to 4.12m.
Unemployment rate dropped to 6.4%, down from 6.6%, better than expectation of 6.5%. But that was still 1.1% higher than a year ago. Participation rate dropped -0.1% to 66.1%. Monthly hours worked dropped -4.9%, or -86m hours, to 1667m.
