(Bloomberg) -- Australian employers added almost four times as many jobs as forecast in July as the economy’s recovery in areas with the virus under control withstood Victoria’s renewed lockdown and concern about the infection spreading.
Employment surged by 114,700 vs an expected 30,000 gain, data from the statistics bureau showed Thursday in Sydney. The jobless rate edged up to 7.5% from 7.4% in June vs economists median estimate of 7.8%. The participation rate rose to 64.7%, compared with an estimated 64.4%.
The Australian dollar advanced on the data and was trading at 71.81 U.S. cents at 11:41 a.m. in Sydney.
The data set the scene before Melbourne moved to Stage 4 restrictions and a curfew and surrounding Victoria state to Stage 3 to try to contain a rapidly spreading outbreak. The central bank last week predicted that Victoria’s intensified lockdown would cut economic growth this quarter by 2 percentage points and the jobless rate would climb to around 10% later this year.
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