Our labour market and the RBA

20 January 2022 – 6 min 30 sec

Alex talked with ausbiz for his take on today’s very strong labour market print. Another 64,800 jobs were added in the month of December. And while that met analyst expectations, the upside surprise was the giant step down in the unemployment rate from 4.6% to 4.2%. The participation rate remaining at 66.1 per cent was the only miss.

“We still think the first RBA hike is probably in 2023, despite the print,” says Alex. “Ramping up of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) hike expectations look a bit aggressive to us, but nevertheless, this year should present more volatility relative to last year. We are still positive on equities and would be looking to add on any sell offs,” he indicates.

Find out why Alex believes that China risks are easing given policy announcements over the last two to three weeks, and why data is likely to remain quite weak for the next quarter or two.

A little about Alex

Alexander Cousley is the Asia-Pac Investment Strategy Analyst for Russell Investments. He is responsible for covering the Asian region, as well as listed real assets.