By Damian Troise and Alex Veiga Updated May 15, 2025 — 12.44pm
The Australian sharemarket was slightly lower in afternoon trading, after a mixed night on global market and as new figures showed a surge in employment last month.
The S&P/ASX 200 was down 6.3 points, or 0.1 per cent lower at 11.45 AM on Thursday, with six of 11 industry sectors in negative territory.
Wall Street had a choppy session on Wednesday. Credit: Reuters
As investors await a potential interest rate cut next week, the ABS on Thursday said the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 per cent in April, while the number of employed people shot up by 89,000 in the month, beating the market’s expectations. The number of unemployed people also increased by 6000 in the month.
The Australian dollar strengthened slightly after the result, and was trading at US64.43¢ at 11.52 AEST. Economists believe the strength of the labour market will be a key influence on how deeply the Reserve Bank cuts interest rates, with markets tipping a likely cut next week.
Senior APAC economist for Capital Economics, Abhijit Surya, said the ABS data suggested the labour market remained “very tight.” While he tipped a rate cut from the RBA next week, the research house argues the RBA will only cut the cash rate to a low point of 3.6 per cent this cycle – which is higher than what most economists expect.
“With the labour market going from strength to strength, we’re more convinc
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