🇦🇺❗️Cable FX Macro Weekly Note: Australia October Labor Report

**As seen in Risk In The Week report 11/10/23, subscribe at cablefxm.co.uk/reports

Australia's September employment posted a minor increase of 6.7K vs the prior 64.9K, the headline was below expectations of 20.0K. The full-time employment drop of 39.9K was offset by part-time job growth. The unemployment rate surprised economists as it fell to 3.6%, the expectation was for an unchanged reading of 3.7%. September's participation rate dropped to 66.7% from 67.0%, the downtick was unexpected. The labour report was mixed and failed to convince the jobs market is cooling dramatically. More recent data in the form of job vacancies showed a decline of 3.0% in October, this is the sharpest drop recorded since August 2021.

A review brought by analysts at Westpac shows that the labour market is showing signs of a turning point, but is yet to begin slackening to a significant degree. Westpac noted an emerging softness from hours worked as employers are less willing to demand further time from the workforce. Westpac pencils the October headline at 25.0K and an unchanged jobless rate at 3.6%. The desk at CBA pencils September net employment change at 20.0K and an uptick in the unemployment rate to 3.7%, they noted that forward- looking indicators point to a softening in demand for labour.