[click to enlarge charts]
Still catching up from last week. The latest Australian labour market data showed a net 24,500 jobs were added in October. However most of those jobs were of the part-time variety with only 2,900 full time jobs created.
Despite a net addition of jobs, the unemployment rate rose 0.1% to 5.8% as a net 35,600 people entered the workforce.
Underneath the headline number things aren’t quite as rosy. Aggregate monthly hours declined by 1.9 million in October driving the average work week down to 32.4 hours per week after rising to 32.5 last week. Average weekly hours worked is usually a good leading indicator of the labor market. Until hours worked show a sustained uptrend, job growth will remain sluggish.
