The Australian dollar is holding its ground after making big gains after the release of the strongest jobs figures since the 1980s.

At 0700 AEDT on Friday, the local unit was trading at 72.89 US cents, up from 72.86 cents on Thursday.

The total number of people with a job also rose 71,400 in November, building on a gain of over 56,000 the month before, which was the strongest two months of employment growth since January 1988.

The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in almost two years, to 5.8 per cent in November, beating expectations, from 5.9 in October.
Boris Schlossberg, MD-FX strategy, BK Asset Management, said the Australian dollar shot one US cent higher but fell away during the overnight session because there were doubts about the veracity of the figures.

“Many analysts remained sceptical about the accuracy of the date given the fact that the ABS is using new sampling techniques that may overstate the numbers,” he said.

“Nevertheless the trend in employment is clearly improving and it is borne out by other economic data such as retail sales which show that the Australian economy is making a successful transition to rebalance itself from mining sector led growth.”

Market will now be waiting for next week’s US Federal Reserve meeting which is widely expected to hike interest rate for the first time in almost 10 years.

AAP

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