Unemployment rose during November with full-time employment dropping by 40,000, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The figures show total jobs fell 0.1% to 11.4 million, raising the unemployment rate to 5.3%. Economists had largely expected full-time employment to increase to about 5.25%.
Part-time employment rose by 33,600 to 3,430,800, as unemployment rose by 9,400.
The participation rate was 65.5%, in comparison with an unrevised rate of 65.6% in October.
CVC has come up with an agreement with Goldman Sachs that could see Nine Entertainment slash its debt by as much as $1 billion.
According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Goldman Sachs will convert its debt into equity. The report claims that both CVC and Goldman will record a loss on their investments in Nine.
This comes after CVC said yesterday it had abandoned a deal to “amend and extend” the terms of Nine’s existing $2.7 billion debt.
The report claims that CVC is looking at classing that $2.7 billion in senior debt into two categories.
The Australian sharemarket has opened flat this morning after a weak lead from the United States, where investors are still watching carefully how debt talks in Europe will unfold.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 8 points or 0.19% to 4284.4 at 12.00 AEST, while the Australian dollar remained at $US1.02c.
AMP shares rose 0.46% to $4.34, while Commonwealth Bank shares lost 0.24% to $50.05. ANZ lost 0.55% to $21.12 as Westpac lost 0.37% to $21.53.
In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42 points or 0.35% to 12,192.36.
Hopes for a swift resolution to the European debt crisis have been dashed after a German official said an outcome might not emerge until Christmas – despite Germany and France saying this week the matter was urgent.
A French official also suggested overnight that an accord that 17 nations will keep using the euro, rather than a new treaty among the European Union’s 27 members, is the likely outcome of this week’s European summit.
The comments follow a threatened downgrade of European bonds by Standard & Poor’s, and the release of a plan for eurozone countries to submit their economies to greater scrutiny from a central European authority.
Releasing the plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they were “convinced that we need to act without delay.”
Meanwhile, Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans is tight-lipped on speculation that a move towards compulsory arbitration might emerge from next year’s review of the Fair Work Act.
Evans told ABC Radio this morning that there was a “lot of rhetoric in this field, a lot of ideology, a lot of false claims.”
The Labor Party’s policy platform was changed at the weekend to allow for last-resort arbitration in enterprise agreements.
“People are rightly focused on whether a dispute has to get to the stage of a lockout of employees before arbitration is required,” Evans said.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
