By Swati Pandey
SYDNEY, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Australian employment jumped again in December and the jobless rate surprisingly fell, a generally upbeat report that should comfort the central bank as the labour market remains one of the strongest parts of the economy.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday showed a net 21,600 new jobs were created in December, down from an upwardly revised 39,000 the month before but surpassing market forecasts of a 16,500 increase.
The overall trend in Australia's labour market has been robust over the past couple of years with annual job growth of 2.2 percent, faster than the 1.6 percent rise in population. Full-time positions expanded by almost 2 percent in 2018.
Thursday's data will be welcomed by policymakers who are counting on labour market strength for a long-awaited pick up in wage growth and inflation amid a downturn in the property market.
Some details in the report, however, were not quite as impressive, with full-time positions that tend to offer higher wages and greater security declining by 3,000, adding to falls in November.
That means the increase in employment in December was entirely led by part-time work.
The participation rate eased to 65.6 percent in December, helping bring down the unemployment rate to 5.0 percent - an equal 6-1/2 year low touched in September and October.
The underemployment rate fell, too, to 8.4 percent but stayed above its historical average.
Helping investor confidence, leading indicators of labour demand point to further employment growth in Australia. An index of vacancies released by the department of jobs and small business on Wednesday showed there were 185,547 skilled job vacancies in December, the highest in 6-1/2 years.
The uptrend will boost the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) confidence that the A$1.8 trillion economy is moving on the right track. The RBA has held the cash rate at a record low 1.50 percent for almost 2-1/2 years now while repeatedly signalling the next move would be an increase.
With the latest data unlikely to budge the RBA from this neutral stance, the local dollar AUD=D4 rose slightly to $0.7159 from $0.7146 before the job report.