Australia's jobless rate climbs to 6 pct in January

Australia's unemployment rate in January has risen to 6 percent from 5.8 percent a month earlier, according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday.

In January, employment fell by 7,900 from December. Some 40,600 full-time jobs were lost although offset by an increase of 32,700 part-time jobs.

The Australian Financial Review, the country's mainstream financial newspaper, said January's figure missed market expectations for a 15,000 job gain and a steady 5.8 percent unemployment rate.

"The result is the second in as many months to show a fall in hiring after the previous 10 months saw almost 300,000 jobs added," the newspaper said.

The figure came as a surprise to most analysts, who had been expecting recent positive trends in job growth to continue, the Australian Broadcast Company commented.

The Australian dollar fell sharply after ABS reported the 6 percent jobless rate.

Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash was upbeat about the figures. "There is still considerable underlying strength in the labor market. The overall trend and the statistics show the Australian labor market is holding up well."

The jobless figures prompted many economists to change their prediction about the cash rate. Leading economist Tim Toohey at Goldman Sachs predicted that the Reserve Bank of Australia would cut 0.25 of a percentage point in May and July. Enditem