Data issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the Asian session today, Thursday, January 20, showed a decline in the unemployment rate to 4.2% in December from 4.6% in November, to record the best reading since the global financial crisis. The reading came better than market expectations of 4.5%, in contrast.

About 64,800 thousand jobs were added in December (expectations to add 60 thousand), coinciding with the stability of the labor force participation rate at 66.1%.

These numbers come from the Australian economy before the new Omicron strain began to spread and spread in Australia in the last weeks of December and early January, but it is estimated that Omicron’s impact will be short-term on the economic recovery in Australia.

The Australian dollar rose after this data, to test 1.7259 levels against the US dollar, before recording some declines now, and is trading at 0.7235 levels.