Aussie workforce grows

New jobs put pressure on Reserve Bank Governor to keep lifting interest rates

Australian employers added workers in April for a second straight month, increasing pressure on the central bank to raise borrowing costs.

The number of people employed gained 33,700 from March, the statistics bureau said in Sydney yesterday.

The median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for an increase of 22,500. The jobless rate was unchanged in April, from a revised 5.4 per cent in the previous month.

Governor Glenn Stevens has led Group of 20 central bankers in boosting benchmark interest rates this year to stop a mining boom stoking inflation as demand for skilled workers jumps at companies such as BHP Billiton.

Assistant Governor Philip Lowe said low inflation has been "crucial" to Australia's economy, forecast to double its pace of growth by late 2012. And Felicity Emmett, a senior economist at RBS Group Australia in Sydney, said: "Employment growth has eased from a breakneck pace, but the forward indicators of labour demand continue to improve."

The number of full-time jobs were up 37,500 in April and part-time employment decreased 3900, yesterday's report showed.

Stevens has increased the overnight cash rate target six times since early October, as evidence mounts that Australia's economy will strengthen this year after skirting the global recession in 2009. The moves have taken the Reserve Bank's benchmark to 4.5 per cent from a half-century low of 3 per cent. Investors say the central bank is certain to raise borrowing costs to 4.75 per cent in November, and there is a 56 per cent chance of a move by early September, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Inflation is forecast to accelerate to the top of the central bank's target range of 2-3 per cent in 2012, partly because of "some pick-up in wage growth as the labour market tightens," policy makers said.

In contrast to Australia, the unemployment rate in the US was 9.9 per cent in April, and 10 per cent in March among EU countries, the highest since August 1998.

Australia's participation rate, which measures the labour force as a percentage of the population aged over 15, was unchanged in April.

JOB BOOST

* 33,700 jobs added in April

* 5.4 per cent unemployment rate, unchanged from March

- Bloomberg