Australia unemployment falls

The Australian economy prospers

Australia's jobless rate fell sharply in November after a large rise during the previous month.

The fall took analysts by surprise as the country's unemployment rate fell back below 7%.

In October, the rate had risen to 7.1%. In November, 4,100 new jobs brought it down to 6.7%.

Some analysts had expected a rise to 7.3%.

Observers and politicians alike said the fall is an indication that Australia's economy is performing well despite a dip in world economic growth.

"Today's figures demonstrate that, despite the uncertainty that remains in the international economy, there is considerable underlying strength and resilience in the Australian economy and the labour market," said employment minister Tony Abbott.

"The good news story of the Australian economy keeps rolling on. These numbers are clearly much better than expected," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief economist Michael Blythe.

"Certainly against the global backdrop the Australian economy is operating in at the moment and the particular problems it has had in some industries, employment rising and unemployment falling is a pretty good result."

In October, almost 18,000 jobs were lost and economists had predicted that a further 10,000 jobs would go in November.

Some analysts cautioned about reading too much into the figures.

"My initial impression is that the employment figures are quite encouraging," said ANZ Investment Bank senior treasury economist David de Garis.

"But you always have to be careful about monthly data as there's so much noise from month to month."