The full-time workforce is on the rise.
THE unemployment rate has clocked in steady this month at 5.8 per cent — close to its lowest level in two years.
The total number of people with jobs fell by 1000 nationally in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said this morning.
That was better than 5000 fall economists had forecast.
The almost flat result comes after 130,000 jobs were created in October and November — the strongest two-month period of employment growth since the 1980s.
Hans Kunnen, senior economist for Westpac offshoots St George and Bank of Melbourne, said he expected there to be solid employment growth in the new year.
“Having looked at the various jobs ads series, I see no particular grounds for significant jobs losses, demand is being held up by new jobs and by the weaker dollar,” Mr Kunnen said.
“We’d expect to see some ongoing jobs growth over 2016, maybe not at the pace we’ve seen over the past three months, but we’d be quite happy at 20,000 a month.”
JP Morgan chief economist Stephen Walters said it was encouraging that the labour market was able to hold onto the gains in October and November.
“On top of all that, hours worked actually went up, which is a good sign across the whole economy,” Mr Walters said.
Although the employment outcome was flat, full-time employment rose 17,600, while the number of part-time jobs was down by 18,500.
Mr Walters said he doubted the economy would be able to maintain the momentum in jobs growth of the past three months.
“Literally 120,000 jobs were created in (the fourth quarter),” he said.
“That looks too good to be true, so I think we’ll get more modest gains than that and slightly higher unemployment.”
But some leading indicators of employment had been decent, which bode well for the labour market in 2016, he said.
“It suggests that the rotation of sources of growth away from mining and into more service-led activity is progressing,” Mr Walters said. “(But) it’s a slow burn.”
The participation rate, which broadly refers to the number of people either employed or actively looking for work, fell to 65.1 per cent from 65.3 per cent in November.
AAP
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