Australia Employment Change comes in at -15.8K against 31.6K consensus

Australia’s Employment Change for August reported a significant decline, with the economy losing -15.8K jobs. This figure sharply missed the market consensus expectation of 31.6K new jobs. The previous month’s robust gain of 76.3K was also notably higher. The actual print represented a -150.0% surprise relative to the consensus forecast.

Following the release, the Australian dollar experienced broad declines against major currencies. AUDUSD fell -16 pips within five minutes and was down -12 pips after fifteen minutes. This move is currently smaller than the median 15 pips 1-hour move observed after past AUDUSD releases. Similarly, AUDCAD declined -8.1 pips and AUDCHF fell -2.3 pips after fifteen minutes, both moves being smaller than their respective median 1-hour historical moves of 17 pips and 13 pips. AUDJPY was down -10 pips after fifteen minutes, less than its median 20 pips 1-hour move. Conversely, AUDNZD dropped -18 pips after fifteen minutes, exceeding its median 16 pips 1-hour move. EURAUD gained +26 pips and GBPAUD rose +45 pips after fifteen minutes, with GBPAUD’s move already surpassing its median 30 pips 1-hour move. Historically, the direction of AUDUSD has been reliable 61% of the time after these releases.