TOM KENNEDY, ECONOMIST AT JP MORGAN
“I’d characterise today’s number as probably a little bit underwhelming relative to expectations. The unemployment rate really helps you look through a little bit of the volatility around movements in the participation rate, so out of the measures provided it is probably the best measure for what is happening.
“That said, we’re still well within the range of the past six months. We saw a 6.3 percent in January I think so it’s not like we’ve broken out that range and unemployment is going off the charts, that’s not the case.
“It’s just relative to where we were and what we were expecting, it is a bit softer.”
SKYE MASTERS, HEAD OF INTEREST RATE STRATEGY, NAB
“There’s something for everyone in this release. There was a very large rise in employment, but also a big jump in the participation rate. After being surprisingly steady for so long, unemployment rose to where many thought it should be.
“Yet it doesn’t change the overall view that there’s plenty of spare capacity in the labour market and the economy in general. We still see the RBA holding steady for some time to come. It has sounded like the urgency to act on rates has waned recently at the central bank.”
MICHAEL TURNER, STRATEGIST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS
“The unemployment rate has crept up a tiny bit higher but we don’t want to read too much in the data because it has become less reliable in the past year. Employment looks a bit firmer than what the majority of indicators have been suggesting.
“We think unemployment will still grind higher, but it won’t go too much higher, perhaps to 6.5 percent.
For the RBA, a rate above 6 percent still implies a fair amount of slack in the economy and rates need to be accommodative. Whether they need to be lowered again depends on what labour demand looks like ahead. We think it will be pretty soft. We still have another cut in the fourth quarter and another by mid-2016.”
ST GEORGE SENIOR ECONOMIST JANU CHAN:
“We did see the unemployment rate rise but given job growth has also been quite strong it’s still a positive. The jump in the unemployment rate was because the participation rate jumped, and that means more workers are looking for jobs.
“This data supports the view that the labour market is on solid footing, and if anything it’s probably lessening the chance of another rate cut.”