Australia - Q4 Wage Price Index

  • 0.5% for the q/q (vs. expected at 0.6%, prior was 0.6%)

& 2.2% y/y,

  • expected 2.3%, prior was 2.3%

While employment growth has been strong, wage growth is relatively stable/slow. Many of the new jobs created are in the generally lower-paying service sectors. Still, stable/low wage growth is not going to be a handbrake on job creation and is a positive for keeping unemployment down.

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Construction work done for Q4: -3.6% q/q ... that is a bad miss

  • expected -2.0%, prior was -1.8%, revised from -3.6%

Construction activity peaked in 2012 at a historic high (mining related investment boom) and has been trending lower. A lower result again today is not a surprise, but the extent of the decline is. Down 3.6% against a down 2% consensus expectation is a wee bit nasty indeed. I would say it is softened somewhat by the revision higher to the Q3 data ... but July -September 2015 is ancient history.

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AUD has slept through the release. Zzzzzzzzzzz.