Australian employers added workers for a second month in October and the unemployment rate fell as energy companies ramped up hiring, helping the economy weather global market turmoil from Europe’s fiscal crisis.
The number of people employed rose by 10,100 after a revised gain of 22,500 in September, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The increase was in line with the median estimate for 10,000 more jobs in a Bloomberg News survey of 24 economists. The unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent from a revised 5.3 percent.
The report showed a divergence in the nation’s two biggest resource states, with Queensland adding 17,900 workers and Western Australia losing 8,200. The job market nationwide may benefit from Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens’s decision last week to lower the nation’s benchmark interest rate to 4.5 percent from a developed-world high of 4.75 percent.
