Australia’s unemployment rate has fallen to 5.8%, the lowest level in 20 months,following the strongest two-month period of jobs growth in 28 years.
The total number of people with a job rose 71,400 in the month, building on a gain of over 56,000 the month before, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. The surprise increase compared with forecasts of a loss of 10,000 jobs.
Despite widespread concern about the reliability of the data, treasurer Scott Morrison seized on the news and tweeted his congratulations to those who had found a job and the businesses that had created them.
The Australian dollar spiked back above US73c on the news before falling back slightly to US72.86 at 5pm AEDT.
The participation rate, which refers to the number of people either employed or actively looking for work, rose to 65.3% from 65% in October, the ABS said.
Full-time employment rose by 41,600, and the number of part-time jobs was up by 29,700.
The employment figures represent the strongest two-month period of jobs growth since December 1987 and January 1988 and indicated that the Australian economy was coping better than expected with the end of the mining investment boom.
