Boom in new jobs dampens chance of early year rate cut

“Despite weak GDP growth, the economy retains an impressive ability to find jobs for the still rapidly expanding labour force,” he said, noting he still expects the RBA to refrain from a rate cut in February unless underlying inflation falls from 3.5 per cent in September to at least 3.25 per cent in the December quarter.

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Capital.com senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the latest jobs numbers slightly reduced market expectations for a rate cut in February, but added that a drop in the number of people working full-time tempered concern about inflationary pressure from a strong jobs market.

“Businesses are still hiring and there’s still demand for labour, but part-time jobs don’t add as much tightness to the labour market because people work on a flexible basis and there’s generally less pressure put on wages,” he said.

While part-time employment increased by 80,000 jobs, the number of full-time workers dropped by 23,700.

The unemployment rate was highest in Victoria, jumping 0.3 percentage points to 4.4 per cent, while WA was the state with the lowest unemployment rate, staying steady at 3.3 per cent. NSW clocked a 0.1 percentage point drop with unemployment coming in at 3.8 per cent.

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