Australian unemployment rates stabilized in December at 3.5%, according to figures issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) at the beginning of the Asian session today, Thursday, while expectations were for a decline of about 3.4%, despite the decline in the participation rate in the labor market to 66.6% from 66.8%.

The Australian economy lost about 14,600 thousand jobs in December, bringing the number of employment to 13,747,100 million jobs, after adding about 58,300 thousand jobs in the revised November reading, while expectations indicated an addition of about 26 thousand.

The Australian dollar reacted negatively to this data, losing about 0.67% against the US dollar, and trading at 0.6897 levels.