November month employment statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, up for publishing at 00:30 GMT on Thursday, will be the immediate catalyst for the AUD/USD pair traders.

Market consensus suggests that the headline Unemployment Rate may remain unchanged at 3.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis whereas Employment Change could ease to 19K versus the previous addition of 32.2K. Further, the Participation Rate is expected to improve a bit to 66.6% versus 66.5% prior.

Considering the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) policymakers’ recently cautious comments, coupled with the easing Covid trouble in China, today’s Aussie jobs report become crucial for the AUD/USD pair traders. It should be noted that the Aussie Consumer Inflation Expectations for December, scheduled for 00:00 GMT on Thursday, expected 5.7% versus 6.0% prior, also becomes important for the Aussie pair traders. Additionally important will be China’s Industrial Production and Retail Sales numbers for November, up for publishing at 02:00 GMT, expected 3.6% and -3.6% versus 5.0% and -0.5% in that order.

Ahead of the event, analysts at Westpac said,

How could the data affect AUD/USD?

AUD/USD remains troubled around 0.6860-50 after refreshing the six-month high before a few hours. While the pre-data anxiety could be linked to the Aussie pair’s latest resistance to rise, downbeat expectations from the scheduled data also challenge the bulls of late.

Should the actual data arrive stronger, the Aussie pair can manage to cheer the broad US Dollar weakness with upside moves towards refreshing the multi-month top, currently around 0.6880. The pullback moves, however, need validation from November’s peak surrounding 0.6800. Hence, the odds favoring a short-term advance by the AUD/USD are higher even if the bearish bias for the RBA and the scheduled data probe the bulls.

Key Notes

AUD/USD dribbles below 0.6900 after unimpressive Fed, focus on Australia, China data

AUD/USD Forecast: Eyes on Australian employment and inflation data

About the Employment Change

The Employment Change released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is a measure of the change in the number of employed people in Australia. Generally speaking, a rise in this indicator has positive implications for consumer spending which stimulates economic growth. Therefore, a high reading is seen as positive (or bullish) for the AUD, while a low reading is seen as negative (or bearish).

About the Unemployment Rate

The Unemployment Rate released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force. If the rate hikes, indicates a lack of expansion within the Australian labor market. As a result, a rise leads to weaken the Australian economy. A decrease of the figure is seen as positive (or bullish) for the AUD, while an increase is seen as negative (or bearish).