Explosion in jobs for April

Australia Broadcast Center

15-05-2025

Andy Park: To the economy first, and there's been a tsunami of jobs created in April, mainly going to women. Official figures show the unemployment rate remains steady at 4.1 per cent due to the extra number of workers out there hitting the pavement in search of a job. Our business correspondent David Taylor joined me earlier.
David Taylor: Andy, these jobs figures are robust. There's no other way to put it. Part-time jobs increased by 29,500. Full-time jobs increased by 59,500. Now, for the unemployment rate to remain steady, normally all things being equal, you only need full-time jobs to rise about 30,000 given the population growth. Interestingly enough, with these figures, the participation rate, so the number of people out there on the hunt hitting the pavement looking for work, was up 0.3 percentage points, which put the actual participation rate to 67.1 per cent. That's a material lift in the participation rate. So you've got more people out there looking for work and more jobs being created. That helped to keep the unemployment rate steady. Now, with employment increasing by 89,000 people and the number of unemployed people increasing by 6,000 people, the ABS says the unemployment rate remains steady. So whichever way you cut it, more unemployed people or more people looking for work, that counteracted the increased number of jobs. Now, also worth pointing out, more women in the workforce, the rise in employment was larger for females, up 65,000 or 0.9 of 1 per cent, while male employment was up 24,000 or 0.3 of 1 per cent. Now, female employment growth was mainly in full-time workers, which rose 42,000 in April, and female part-time workers, Andy, rose 23,000.
Andy Park: Yesterday's wages data showed the tighter labour market is giving workers some degree of bargaining power with their pay. Do today's figures support that view?
David Taylor: Well, they do in a sense. There is no doubt that wages growth has improved and it's beating inflation at the moment. So real wages growth is rising. The problem is, is that many of these jobs have been created in the public sector and the wage growth is related to public sector enterprise bargaining agreements. So what economists say simply is that while wages growth is strong, it's not particularly strong. It's just healthy and not necessarily a measure of a tight jobs market, just a healthy jobs market. Here's Canberra University Professor Leonora Risse.
Leonora Risse: What we saw earlier in the week was the wage price index, growth in wages, was 3.4 per cent and mainly being driven by the public sector and more of a one-off adjustment to certain awards. So that wasn't necessarily a sign of a tight labour market. It wasn't necessarily a sign.
David Taylor: But that's a really important question though. When the Reserve Bank looks at its interest rates decision on Tuesday, will it consider the fact that many jobs have been created in the public sector and that it's not necessarily organic within the Australian economy? Or will they look past that and say, you know what, the jobs market is still tight, let's hold off on an interest rate cut?
Leonora Risse: So I think at the moment, labour market strong, wage growth is reasonable and healthy, not a sign of labour market tightness that the Reserve Bank needs to be concerned about.
Andy Park: Economist Leonora Risse there. And David, the Australian dollar has been firmer recently against the greenback. Have these employment figures moved the dial on the currency at all?
David Taylor: Look, I think what the dollar is telling us today is that the market, the financial markets at the moment, assuming that this figure will maybe put a little hesitation in the decision on Tuesday's interest rate decision by the Reserve Bank. And what I mean by that, Andy, is the Australian dollar is firmer against the greenback.
Andy Park: David Taylor.