The unemployment rate has risen unexpectedly to a seasonally adjusted 5.4% in October, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Economists had predicted the jobless rate would fall to 5%. The dollar fell below parity with the US dollar after the news was announced.
The ABS found unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 5.4%. Employment increased by 0.3% to 11,355,900, while full-time employment fell 14,100. Part-time employment increased by 43,800 to 3,385,500.
However, the participation rate has increased to a record high of 65.9%, indicating more people are now either working or looking for work. The aggregate monthly house worked increased by 7.9 million to 1.6 billion.
Meanwhile, consumers expect inflation to fall back in the short term , but expand over the next 12 months, according to the Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Inflationary Expectations for October.
The survey found the median expected inflation rate fell 3.1% in November, down from 3.8% in October. MI research fellow Michael Chua said in a statement the movement by the RBA and the strong Australian dollar have eased expectations.
“While this month’s fall is not surprising, we are still expecting inflationary pressure to build up in the next 12 months,” he said. “The dip in inflationary expectations may possibly delay a further rate hike in December 2010.”
Former prime minister John Howard has attacked prime minister Julia Gillard’s industrial relations approach, saying the Fair Work system is an “interventionist” regime in an interview with Business Spectator.
“When a lot of agreements made under our laws run out, they will find themselves in the clutches of a more interventionist Fair Work Australia and they’ll have far less room to move. And it’s going to be quite hard, though, to remount that horse because of the numbers in the Senate,” he said.
“Even if we were to win in 2013, it would be quite hard to change anything much,” he added.
Qantas has confirmed it will keep its Airbus A380 aircraft grounded for another two days while investigations continue into last week’s engine failure.
“Our A380 aircraft will still be grounded for the next 48 hours. At this stage we have no firm update when the aircraft will be in the air,” a spokesperson told Reuters.
Singapore Airlines has also confirmed it has identified oil leakage problems in several of its engines.
The Australian sharemarket has opened higher this morning following a flat result on Wall Street where investors were given a boost in confidence due to solid employment data.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 28 points or 0.6% to 4728.1 at 12.20 AEST, while the Australian dollar slipped below parity due to the unemployment figures, but regained ground to sit at $US1.001.
AMP shares gained 1.2% to $5.23, while ANZ gained 0.5% to $23.82. NAB rose 0.2% to $25.55 as Commonwealth Bank gained 0.9% to $48.53.
The Commonwealth Property Office Fund has purchased three Melbourne office buildings from the Grocon Group, at a price tag of $581.4 million. These include the Media House, QV Building and the AXA Headquarters.
“This strategic acquisition is consistent with CPA’s long term strategy of owning high quality Australian CBD office assets with attractive total return metrics and income certainty,” CPA fund manager Charles Moore said in a statement.
“We are also pleased to have been able to execute this acquisition while maintaining a strong balance sheet.
Centro Properties Group has given real estate investment trust Cromwell Group exclusive due diligence on its direct property syndicate funds management business.
“We believe the potential transaction, should it proceed, will continue to provide a superior service to investors, and create value for all our stakeholders,” Centro chief executive officer Robert Tsenin said in a statement.
“The Centro MCS business would be complementary to Cromwell’s existing funds management business, adding scale by bringing together Centro’s detailed knowledge of the existing syndicates with Cromwell’s stable funds management platform and well respected brand,” Cromwell chief executive officer Paul Weightman added.
The members of a presidential commission focused on proposing measures for reducing the United States’ deficit has released its report, proposing several new ideas including raising the retirement age for social security and lowering taxes.
Co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson have released several proposals they claim will deliver $US4 trillion in deficit reduction.
However, some have already spoken out again the proposals, which would include income tax cuts. US house speaker Nancy Pelosi said “this proposal is simply unacceptable”, referring the social security proposal.
She said the final report should consider elderly citizens and those families “unable to withstand further encroachment on their economic security”.
On Wall Street, stocks have risen due to solid employment data, but poor performances in other shares negated any benefit. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell three points or 0.03% to 11,343.27.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
