The Australian economy gained 26.2K jobs in July, more than double the early expectations for 10.2K. Also, the figure for June was revised up to 10.8K, up from 7.9K initially reported. The unemployment rate surprisingly dropped from 5.8% to 5.8%.
The good news helped the Australian dollar bounce back: from 0.7650 to above 0.77. However, the pair finds it hard to maintain the gains.
The participation rate remained unchanged at 64.9%, meaning that the fall in the unemployment rate is genuine. On the other hand, the internal division between full-time and part-time jobs is not encouraging. Part time jobs are up 71.6K while full-time jobs are down 45.4K. Hours worked are 3.7 million.
Here is how it looks on the chart. On the topside, we find 0.7740 and 0.7840. as lines of resistance. Looking down, 0.7640 and 0.76 await.
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