2h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 1:15amMarket snapshotASX 200: + 0.6% at 8,630Australian dollar: +0.1% at 66.6 US centsWall Street: Dow Jones (1%), S&P 500 (+0.6%), Nasdaq (+0.3%)Europe: DAX (-0.1%), FTSE (+0.1%), Stoxx 600 (+0.1%)Spot gold: +0.3% to $US4,242/ounceOil (Brent crude): +0.5% to $US 62.50/barrelIron ore: 0.9% to $US102.60/tonneBitcoin: -0.9% at $US91,138
ASX 200: + 0.6% at 8,630Australian dollar: +0.1% at 66.6 US centsWall Street: Dow Jones (1%), S&P 500 (+0.6%), Nasdaq (+0.3%)Europe: DAX (-0.1%), FTSE (+0.1%), Stoxx 600 (+0.1%)Spot gold: +0.3% to $US4,242/ounceOil (Brent crude): +0.5% to $US 62.50/barrelIron ore: 0.9% to $US102.60/tonneBitcoin: -0.9% at $US91,138Prices as of Thursday 12:15pm AEDT.
Live updates on the major ASX indices:
4m agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 3:51amHESTA ‘should be a lesson for all funds’
APRA took action again superannuation giant HESTA today, ordering the fund to undertake independent reviews into board governance and risk management after finding its “severe, prolonged” service outage earlier this year “caused direct harm to members”.
HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey said the fund took the matters raised by APRA “very seriously and are cooperating fully with the regulator to resolve them”.
Consumer advocates were scathing of HESTA’s communications with members and conduction during the period of disruption.
On Thursday, Super Consumers Australia welcomed the imposition of licence conditions by APRA.
“This raises serious concerns about the HESTA board and executive’s ability to look after their members. HESTA caused serious harm by failing to deliver basic services, with many unable to contact their fund for months,” the group’s chief executive Xavier O’Halloran said.
“People lost access to their money, faced extreme uncertainty and wasted time because of these failures.
“We heard from one grandmother who was forced to pick up her grandchildren on a bike after she was unable to access her money at HESTA to pay for urgent costs after her car broke down.”
Mr O’Halloran said it should be “a lesson to all funds going through similar transitions, they need to put members’ interests first and properly resource their customer service”.
Super Consumers called on the federal government to implement mandatory customer service standards in super, “to send a clear message to funds that they need to lift their standards or face serious repercussions”.
Read more from Adelaide Miller, who has been following the story since April:
29m agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 3:26amMore concern about a February RBA rate hike
As the economists’ notes trickle in to the ABC business desk, it’s clear the number crunchers see the slowing jobs market as putting the Reserve Bank in a difficult position.
CreditorWatch chief economist Ivan Colhoun writes “Australia’s job market data for November looks a little strange”.
“Jobs falling by 21,000 and full-time jobs dropping by 57,000 suggest a weak employment story,” he notes.
“However, it might just be a statistical quirk because fewer people were looking for work and the survey sample changed.
“Overall, we’re reminded of the RBA Governor’s warning of a few months ago not to over-emphasise any one month’s employment data.
“The key takeaway from today’s release is that unemployment is still very low at 4.3%, which suggests the job market is still strong overall.
“A low unemployment rate is good news for the economy, but as employers continue to compete for workers, it can also push up wages, which can feed inflation.
“If inflation figures come in at 0.9% or more for Q4, we may see the RBA raise rates again when they next meet in February.”
36m agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 3:20am
Wall Street futures sell-off
It’s so early in the piece it’s hardly worth mentioning, but if markets sour tonight I could be blamed for not picking it up early enough.
Suffice to say, at 2:30pm AEDT, Wall Street futures are looking decidedly shaky.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ is off 1.5%.
50m agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 3:05am
Slowing jobs growth … in one picture
This graph explains why the jobs market is weakening.
Basically, there are not enough jobs to go around and many want more work.
Population versus employment (ABS)57m agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 2:58amBupa cops a $35 million fine
Health insurer Bupa has been ordered to pay a $35 million fine for engaging in misleading and unconscionable conduct when it rejected thousands of claims over a five-year period.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says the Federal Court has upheld its agreement with the insurer, announced in June, to pay a fine over its approach to mixed-billing claims.
Between May 2018 and August 2023, the insurer was found to be rejecting claims in full when patients were covered for some or part of their procedures under their policies.
Thecourt declared that Bupa engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and made false or misleading representations over the five years.
There was a separate finding that Bupa engaged in unconscionable conduct between June 2020 and February 2021 over its incorrect assessment of some mixed claims.
The ACCC said Bupa, the second-largest health insurer in Australia, cooperated with its investigation.
Deputy chair Catriona Lowe said Bupa’s conduct affected more than 4,000 customers, with some delaying or forgoing treatment because of they were told they weren’t covered.
“During our investigation we heard from Bupa members who suffered significant harm, including financial harm as well as pain, suffering and emotional distress as a result of Bupa’s conduct,” she said.
“We consider this to be extremely serious conduct.”
In a statement, Bupa acknowledged the court’s orders and said it remained “deeply sorry for these errors and have apologised to our affected customers for the impact this has had on them”.
It said it had taken action to ensure the behaviour did not happen again including compensating affected customers and repaying $14.3 million.
Do you know more? Contact branley.alison@abc.net.au.
1h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 2:47amFebruary interest rate hike more likely
Analysts say the chances of the Reserve Bank lifting the official interest rate in February are growing after today’s jobs figures.
Indeed economist Callam Pickering is direct with his rates forecast:
“If high inflation persists through December and January, then the RBA may have no choice but to hike rates when they meet in February,” he says.
“A failure to do so would ultimately undermine their credibility as an inflation-targeting central bank.
“However, the job market is sitting on a knife’s edge.
“Employment growth is sluggish and unless we see a meaningful improvement in private sector employment growth then a much higher unemployment rate seems inevitable.
“At the very least, the latest RBA forecasts appear awfully optimistic.
“We think it’s likely that the RBA will hike rates when they meet in February, but we expect that any tightening cycle will be relatively brief.”
The financial markets are also pricing in a greater chance of a February RBA interest rate hike.
Swaps — which are interest rate derivatives products and a guide to underlying interest rate markets — currently imply a 23% chance that the RBA will raise interest rates in February, while a move in May is about 70% priced in.
There are about two rate hikes priced in by the end of next year.
CBA, however, remains circumspect.
“For the RBA, this labour force report alone is not likely to materially impact their thinking, since unemployment and employment growth are only a touch below their current forecasts,” CBA economists write in a note.
Inflation remains the key determinant of a hike in February, which CBA economists don’t expect “for now”.
“We still expect the cash rate to remain on hold from here but note risks clearly sit to higher rates in 2026.,” they write.
1h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 2:45am
AI not a threat to jobs?
A big fear moving into 2026 is whether robots will take all our jobs.
The latest jobs data seems to indicate those fears are not well founded.
Online job site Indeed’s senior economist Callam Pickering says: “Seasonal hiring in retail began to unwind in November but in food preparation and service roles, opportunities continued to grow.”
“Job ads for both sectors will likely fall in December,” he says.
“[But] software development continues to defy national trends, with job ads rising in November and higher than a year ago.
“That is particularly interesting because software development is also the category where artificial intelligence is most frequently mentioned.”
1h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 2:35am
Westpac board dramas, Nash holds seat
Westpac’s annual meeting is underway in Sydney with climate protesters outside objecting to the bank’s lending to fossil fuel companies.
Meanwhile, Westpac’s non-executive director Peter Nash appears to have survived an investor backlash due to his ties to the troubled Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), according to proxy votes shown at the meeting.
Only about 40% of investors voted against his re-election as a director to the board, the proxy votes showed.
Nash needed at least 50% support to be re-elected to the board and the final results of the vote will be known later today.
Two influential proxy vote advisors recommended investors vote against Nash because he served on the ASX board for six years during its recent upheaval.
The ASX, which is Australia’s stock exchange operator, is facing increasing regulatory pressure over a string of failures in recent years, including a trading and settlement outage last year.
1h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 2:19am
Can we ever read anything into anything?
It’s clear from the commentary that’s emerged that today’s employment numbers are on the weaker side.
But AMP’s cautioning us not to read too much into this data set.
“It is probably hard to read too much into the unemployment rate this month,” chief economist Shane Oliver writes.
“The ABS highlighted that one of the eight sample groups in NSW were removed due to ‘operational challenges’ in data collection.
“Coincidentally, the unemployment rate for NSW was the lowest among all states in November at 3.9% which is a drop from last month’s 4.2%.”
However, Oliver concedes the numbers do not point to ongoing strength in the jobs market.
“On the other hand, jobs growth in November was weak, driven by a large 56k fall in full-time employment, offset by a 35k gain in part-time jobs,” he notes
“Since the beginning of the year, employment growth has cooled to just 1.3%yoy, below the growth rate in the working-age population of 2% pa.
“The number of hours worked in the economy was also unchanged last month and is only up by 1.2% over the year.”
1h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 2:10am
Myer sales surge
The big department store retailer held its AGM today.
It’s reported total sales in the first 19 weeks of its financial year up 3%.
Its shares have surged 10% to 45 cents on the back of this, as at 1:10pm AEDT.
1h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 2:00am
Is the underemployment rate spike serious?
JPMorgan research tends to be a little more on the technical side of things.
Here’s an excerpt from economist Tom Kennedy’s note on the jobless rate, with a focus on the underemployment rate:
“The underemployment rate increased four-tenths to 6.4%, one of the largest monthly moves in recent years and unwinds the modest downtrend that has been in place since late 2024.”
“We’ve previously explored the drivers of falling underemployment and found this to be mostly a structural, rather than cyclical story.
“Accordingly, we don’t think today’s upswing will be sustained and expect underemployment to revert lower in upcoming prints.”
So, nothing to see here folks, it seems.
2h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 1:47amWeaker jobs, stronger inflation: KPMG
Accounting firm KPMG has summed up today’s employment numbers nicely.
Chief economist Brendan Rynne is concerned inflation is getting hotter while the labour market is cooling.
“Total employment fell by 21,300 between October and November, well off the market consensus expectation of +20,000 new jobs,” he said.
“However, around 23,000 people withdrew from the labour force over same period, resulting in the unemployment rate being maintained at 4.3% for November.
“What is more concerning is that the annualised rate of employment growth across the economy is now less than 1.3%, well down from the 3% annual rate of employment growth the Australian economy started the year off with.
“The RBA had forecast labour market outcomes similar to what the results are showing us today, but they will still cause pause for thought for the board in terms of how best to set monetary policy in the new year with a labour market that is clearly weakening and an inflationary environment that has seemingly more strength to it than previously anticipated.”
2h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 1:38am
Bond correction
The reported 8 basis point drop in the 3 year Australian Government bond rate is a 0.08% drop, not a 0.8% drop. Rates are still 40 basis points or 0.4% higher than a month ago.
– Andrew
G’day Andrew,
Can’t tell you how much I love you pulling me up on this.
Thanks, fellow bond nerd.
DT
2h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 1:30amOfficial jobs figures ‘nasty’, economist says
Economists do not like the devil in the detail with these latest jobs numbers from the ABS.
“A nasty set of labour market figures gives the RBA a lot to think about over Christmas,” Indeed economist Callam Pickering said.
“Labour market conditions continue to soften, even if that isn’t yet reflected in the unemployment rate.
“Employment has increased by just 130,000 people over the first ten months of the year.
“That compares to a gain of 346,000 people over the same period last year,” he said.
2h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 1:20amUnderemployment spikes
The latest official jobs numbers show the underemployment rate surged by 0.4% to 6.2% in November.
“In original terms, the number of underemployed people who worked part-time, but would prefer more hours, rose 5.9% over the last year,” the ABS’s Sean Crick said.
“This was led by males which grew 17%, whereas females recorded a small fall of 1.7%,” Mr Crick said.
2h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 1:10am
Jobs data sees drop in bond yields
The Australia 3-Year Bond Yield fell 0.08% or 8 basis points following the release of the official November jobs data.
The bond rate was 4.11% at midday AEDT.
The markets now seem to be factoring in a slightly lower chance of an early 2026 RBA interest rate hike.
But it’s clearly at the margin.
3h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 12:55am
November unemployment skewed to men
Official figures just out show full-time employment in November fell by 57,000 people, with males falling by 40,000 and females by 16,000 people.
Part-time employment partly offset the fall in full-time employment, rising by 35,000.
Females working part-time increased 29,000 while males rose 6,000 in November.
“With the fall in the number of employed and unemployed people in November, the participation rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 66.7 per cent,” ABS’s Sean Crick said.
“The number of employed people has risen 1.3 per cent over the past 12 months, which is weaker than the 2.0 per cent growth in population.”
The employment-to-population ratio fell by 0.2% to 63.8% this month.
Hours worked remained flat this month and increased 1.2% compared to November 2024.
3h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 12:42amBig drop in full-time jobs
The unemployment rate for November is unchanged at 4.3%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The participation rate decreased to 66.7%.
Full-time employment fell by 56,500, while there was an increase of 35,200 jobs.
The bureau noted that the unemployment rate has remained at 4.3% in five of the past six months.
3h agoThu 11 Dec 2025 at 12:37amASX adding to gains, Aussie dollar pulls back on jobs
Just a few minutes since the jobs data dropped and it’s being read as soft, based on the initial market reaction. Of course, let’s give it a few more minutes to wash out as there can always be a devil in the detail …
The Aussie dollar is now down 0.2% to 66.6 US cents, while the ASX has extended its gains, with the 200 now up 0.8%.