The Aussie keeps selling. Overview for 18.08.2022

AUDUSD has been plunging for the fifth consecutive trading session; the labour market data turned out to be very weak.

The Australian Dollar is looking unimpressive against the USD. The current quote for the instrument is 0.6940.

The statistics published by Australia in the morning were rather controversial. On one hand, Unemployment Rate in the country dropped to 3.4% in July after being 3.5% the month before, and it’s good news. On the other hand, Employment Change showed -40.9K after being 88.4K in June and against the expected reading of 26.5K. 

Participation Rate was 66.4% in July against the expected reading of 66.8%. Full Time Employment change plummeted. 

What is happening? There are no viable explanations so far. It’s the end of winter in Australia, so it might be a seasonal factor. In addition, the economy might cut jobs due to demand issues amid an inflation boost and rate hikes. 

In any case, market players should see how the situation unfolds before drawing any far-reaching conclusions. For the AUD, this labour market slump is moderately negative.