Australian unemployment fell by 0.2 percentage points in December to 4.1%, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) at the start of Asian trading on Thursday, January 22. This compares to 4.3% in November and is better than market expectations, which had anticipated a rise to 4.4%. The labor force participation rate also rose to 66.7%.

The Australian economy added 65,200 jobs in December, bringing the total number of employed individuals to 14,684,100. This follows a loss of approximately 28,000 jobs in November, which was revised downwards. Expectations had anticipated the creation of around 28,000 jobs.