The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently reported that the unemployment rate in October stood at 7 percent, an increase from the previous month's 6.9 percent but lower than expected, as analysts predicted it to be at 7.2 percent. Employment change stood at 178,800 after a change of 29,500 in the previous month, beating analysts' expectations.
Full-time employment increased by 97,000 in October, after going down by 20,100 in the previous month. Part-time employment increased by 81,800, after decreasing by 9,400 in the previous month. The participation rate climbed to 65.8 percent after being at 64.8 percent in the previous month, and is higher than analysts' expectations of 64.7 percent.
It seems that the COVID-19 pandemic is currently under control in Australia, though a rise in cases in South Australia was recently reported. This pushed the State of Victoria to close its border, even though new cases have not been reported in the last 24 hours. So far, 27,785 COVID-19 cases and a death toll of 907 have been reported in the country.
By 7:23 GMT the Australian dollar dropped by 0.23 percent against the US dollar, falling to the 0.7296 level.
China Aims To Keep Cutting Tariffs
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China will keep cutting tariffs and will aim to increase imports of high-quality goods and services.
“We will further reduce tariffs and institutional costs...and expand imports of high-quality products and services from all countries,” he said, calling other countries for stronger policy coordination, claiming that globalization is “irreversible”.
Tensions with Australia are currently on the rise. China has retaliated since the Australian government called for an international inquiry into the coronavirus crisis, which has pushed the Australian government to improve communication with the Chinese government. Nevertheless, the Chinese claim that so far, those efforts have not been sufficient and that the Australian government should “take concrete actions to correct their mistakes”.