The Australian unemployment rate decreased in May to 3.6% from 3.7%, according to figures issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) at the beginning of the Asian session today, Thursday, while expectations indicated that it would stabilize at 3.7%, with the participation rate in the labor market rising to 66.9% from 66.7%.
The Australian economy added about 75,900 jobs in May, bringing the number of employment to 14,011,000 million jobs, compared to 13,935,800 million in April, after losing more than 4,000 jobs, while expectations were to add about 18,000.
From New Zealand, where government figures showed today that the New Zealand economy entered a stage of technical recession, after contracting by 0.1% in the first quarter of this year, after contracting by 0.7% in the fourth quarter of last year, to match expectations, on an annual basis and compared to the same period last year.
The economy grew by 2.9% in the first quarter.
The contraction in the first quarter was affected by a decline in production in business services by 3.5%, while the transportation and storage sector declined by 2.2%, while the trade sector contracted after a decline in exports by 6.9% and a decline in imports by 5.6%.
This is in addition to the direct impact of Hurricanes Hale and Gabriel and teachers’ strikes in the quarter the first of this year.