The Australian workforce has been battered by the collapsing economy but the unemployment rate released earlier today was better than experts had predicted, rising just 0.1 per cent to 5.2 per cent.
“In more normal times, this detail gets little attention but the economy is deteriorating so quickly at the moment that the reference period has impacted the narrative,” she said. The report heaps praise, however, on the Federal Government’s fiscal response, revising its expectation for unemployment from 17 per cent down to 9 per cent for the middle of the year due to the eye-watering $130 billion JobKeeper package.
Macquarie Group dropped 2.13 per cent to $98.81 while Bendigo Bank, which has withdrawn its second-half outlook commentary, lost 3.07 per cent to $6.00. Crown Resorts’ shares fell by 0.12 per cent to $8.25 after the company stood down 11,500 of its employees because of the coronavirus restrictions affecting its casinos in Melbourne and Perth.
But, you know, COAL! Scotty From Marketing only cares about export of coal. On that front, it's all good!