AUD/NZD is a sinking ship on Aussie employment data disappointment

• AUD/NZD sinks on the back of a poor Aussie jobs data outcome.
• RBNZ next week expected to hike rates by 50 basis points, RBA is put back in question.

AUD/NZD is under pressure following the Australian Employment Change and jobs data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics arrived as a major disappointment, weighing on the Aussie across the board. At the time of writing, the cross is trading offered near 1.0970, but a touch off the lows scored on the knee-jerk to the data. The pair had fallen to a low of 1.0965 from 1.1018.

Aussie jobs data

• Australia Employment Change Jan: -11.5K (est 20.0K; prev -14.6K).
• Unemployment Rate Jan: 3.7% (est 3.5%; prev 3.5%).
• Full Time Empl Change Jan: -43.3K (prev 17.6K).
• Part Time Empl Change Jan: 31.8K (prev -32.2K).
• Participation Rate Jan: 66.5% (est 66.6%; prev 66.6%).

Jobs are down and the Unemployment Rate is up for January and it comes in stark contrast to the Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Lowe and Deputy Governor Bullock's appearances in front of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee yesterday. The pair had been laying out the reasons the Board expects further cash rate hikes will be needed:

"We want to get inflation down because it's dangerous… It's corrosive. It hurts people. It damages income inequality and if it stays high it leads to higher interest rates and more unemployment.”

Meanwhile, analysts at Westpac Bank argued that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will again use next Wednesday’s Monetary Policy Statement to emphasise the scale of its battle against inflation. ''We’re expecting a 50 basis point increase in the Official Cash Rate to 4.75%, and market opinion has also swung in that direction over recent weeks.''