December month employment statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released 00:30 GMT on Thursday, it is the catalyst for the AUD/JPY pair traders. Australia boasted another solid rise in employment in December as strength in consumer spending and housing helped drive the jobless rate down to 6.6%, recovering most of the job losses suffered during the pandemic lockdown of 2020. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday reported 50,000 net new jobs were created in December, on top of a 90,000 gain the month before.
Employment has now rebounded by 784,500 since May, leaving it 87,600 short of the level seen in March before much of the economy was shut down. The jobless rate was down from a July peak of 7.5% and beat forecasts of 6.7%, but still remains well above its pre-pandemic level of 5.2%. “Job vacancies have continued to rise suggesting the labour demand from businesses remains high, so we expect employment to continue to recover toward pre-virus levels,” said Ben Udy, Australia & New Zealand economist at Capital Economics.
On the other hand, The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday and upgraded its economic forecast for next fiscal year, but warned of escalating risks to the outlook as new coronavirus emergency measures threatened to derail a fragile recovery.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the board also discussed the bank’s review of its policy tools due in March, though dropped few hints on what the outcome could be. “Our review won’t focus just on addressing the side-effects of our policy. We need to make it more effective and agile,” Kuroda told a news conference.
In fresh quarterly projections, the BOJ upgraded next fiscal year’s growth forecast to a 3.9% expansion from a 3.6% gain seen three months ago based on hopes the government’s huge spending package will soften the blow from the pandemic.
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