GBP/AUD hits 25-week low on strong Australia employment growth

The Australian Dollar advanced to a fresh 25-week high against the British Pound on Thursday, after data showed Australia’s employment had risen at the sharpest rate since August in November.

Employment levels rose by 61,500 to 14.26 million last month, far exceeding market consensus of an 11,000 gain.

Part-time employment rose by 4,500 to 4.35 million, while full-time employment increased by 57,000 to 9.91 million, data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged up to 3.9% in November from a revised up 3.8% in October. It has been the highest unemployment rate since May 2022.

The number of unemployed persons went up by 18,800 to 572,000, with people looking for full-time jobs increasing by 10,600 to 383,600.

“There is certainly enough momentum for the economy to result in employment growth, but it will slow and we will see the unemployment rate rise a little,” Cherelle Murphy, chief economist at EY Oceania, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Market players now look to the outcome of the Bank of England’s December meeting. The BoE is largely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate at a 15-year high of 5.25% for a third straight meeting amid signs of an economic slowdown.

The BoE has delivered 13 rate increases over the course of nearly two years in an attempt to curb persistent inflation.

Still, markets do not expect a rate cut until the third quarter of 2024.

As of 8:17 GMT on Thursday GBP/AUD was retreating 0.63% to trade at 1.8807. Earlier in the session, the minor Forex pair went down as low as 1.8794. The latter has been the pair’s weakest level since June 22nd (1.8761).