Australia’s labour force report for July is out this morning and our economists expect a net monthly employment growth of 12k which should help keep the unemployment rate unchanged at 5.8%. Our numbers are fairly close to market consensus with Bloomberg showing the expected median at 10k and the unemployment rate at 5.8%.
The usual caveats for the numbers apply, the survey has a tendency to be quite volatile and sample rotations can often be the cause for large swings in the numbers. This month is a classic example; one eighth of the sample that drops out has a higher employment-to-population ratio and a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the sample. So unless the eight that comes in July also has above average metrics, then the chances are that the employment change could be biased down and the unemployment rate biased up.
NAB’s expectations for a net monthly employment growth of 12k is driven by positive signals from the likes of the NAB employment index and job advertisements which suggest we should get a solid employment outcome, however this initial number has been adjusted to reflect our expectation of a negative impact from sample rotation. The OIS market is currently pricing around a 50% chance of another RBA rate cut in November. A large negative employment number could potentially push the market to increase the chances of an RBA rate cut this year and weigh on the AUD, however some caution is advised as the devil could be in the detail.