2007-10-11

Good news is bad news

From the department of everything-is-fine-move-on-please:
Economists say a lower than expected unemployment rate in September will add to the case for another interest rate rise.

Australia's unemployment rate fell to 4.2 per cent seasonally adjusted last month, the lowest level in 33 years, after economists had expected it to remain steady at 4.3 per cent.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show 13,000 jobs were added to the labour market in September.

HSBC chief economist John Edwards says the low figure will put upward pressure on interest rates.

"It'll support the central bank's view that the economy is probably accelerating, and almost certainly it means we're going to have an interest rate increase. Perhaps more than one," he said.

The figures also show there was a fall in full-time employment but an increase in part-time work.
This increase in employment must be in regional clusters because I found it so much easier to get work ten years ago in Sydney when the national unemployment rate was around 8 percent. In 2000 I had two independent schools in Sydney offer me temporary or full-time work based on nothing but one or two days casual work with them. Here in Newcastle? Zip, nada, null.

The thing about 33 year lows in unemployment is that they occur so rarely that, really, they must be a peak that we could tumble over.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Their definition of employment is suspect. Don't they just mix in part time jobs as "employed" when the person might have been seeking full time work?