- A big beat on the Aussie January employment figure is boding well for the AUD.
- AUD/JPY jumped to two-week highs on upbeat data and could rise to year-to-date highs above 79.84.
The bid tone around the AUD strengthened, pushing the AUD/JPY cross higher to 79.82 – a level last seen on Feb. 5 – after the numbers published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the labor market remained strong in January.
The economy added 39,100 jobs last month, beating the estimated increase of 15,000 jobs by a big margin. The full-time employment rose by a staggering 65,400, following a drop of 3,000 registered in December.
The part-time employment, however, fell by 26,300 in January, following a rise of 24,600 in the previous month. The jobless rate remained unchanged at 5 percent, as expected, and the labor force participation rate ticked higher to 65.7 percent.
All-in-all, the report confirms that jobs market remains the bright spot for the Australia economy and will likely comfort the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which is counting on the sustained labor market strength to boost wage price inflation and consumption.
The pick-up in the AUD, therefore, is hardly surprising. At press time, AUD/JPY is trading at 79.72 and could print year-to-date highs above 79.84 if the equities remain bid.
Technical Levels
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