are we there yet thursday, page-7

50k Jobs Surge Stuns Forecasters
Michael Janda

The Australian labour market has stunned economists for a third straight month, with more than 50,000 new jobs created in January.

The official ABS survey showed a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent, with 52,700 more people employed, although only 15,900 of those extra jobs were full-time.

The consensus economist forecast had been for a small up tick in the unemployment rate to 5.6 per cent, despite the predicted creation of 15,000 jobs.

20,000 more jobs were created than even the most optimistic forecast among 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

The last two months' unemployment figures also surprised economists with a much larger than expected number of jobs created, forcing the unemployment rate down to 5.5 per cent in December.

That lead many analysts to predict that unemployment had peaked in 2009 at 5.8 per cent.