By Jacob Greber Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Australian employment soared for a fourth straight month as companies added three times more jobs than economists estimated, driving the nation’s currency higher as traders bet the central bank will keep raising interest rates. The number of people employed gained 35,200 in December from November, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The jobless rate fell to 5.5 percent from a revised 5.6 percent. The biggest hiring boom in more than three years is being stoked by companies including Chevron Corp., which is expanding liquefied natural gas ventures in Western Australia to meet rising global demand for energy. That will drive economic growth, adding to pressure on central bank Governor Glenn Stevens to raise the overnight cash rate target in February by a quarter point for a record fourth straight meeting to 4 percent. “This really raises the prospect that the Reserve Bank comes into play in February,” said Alex Joiner, a senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne, whose forecast of a gain of 30,000 jobs was closest to today’s result. “The economy is now well into a recovery phase.” The median estimate of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for an increase of 10,000 jobs in December. Employers have added 135,700 jobs in the four months through December, of which 58 percent were full-time positions. The number of full-time jobs gained 7,300 in December and part-time employment increased 27,900, today’s report showed. Currency, Stocks The Australian dollar rose to 92.87 U.S. cents at 12:30 p.m. in Sydney from 92.19 cents just before the report was released. The two-year government bond yield jumped 10 basis points to 4.56 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index of stocks gained 0.9 percent. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest lender by market value, added 1.2 percent to A$56.70. National Australia Bank Ltd. advanced 1 percent to A$27.09. Rising employment has helped boost consumer confidence, spurring household spending that accounts for more than half of the economy. Retail sales jumped 1.4 percent in November from October, a report showed on Jan. 7. The gain was almost five times the median forecast of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, and prompted Gerry Harvey, the billionaire chairman of the nation’s largest electronics seller, to say Australia’s economy is heading for its “next big boom.” Consumer Confidence A rebound in consumer confidence after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government distributed more than A$20 billion ($18 billion) in cash to households is also prompting airlines and retailers to hire. Qantas Airways Ltd., whose low-cost Jetstar unit plans to hire 300 workers as it adds 700,000 new seats to existing routes with four extra Airbus 320 planes, said on Dec. 21 that rising passenger demand may deliver first-half profit of as much as A$150 million, after posting its first half-year loss in six years in August. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd., Australia’s biggest furniture and electronics retailer, was “pretty happy” with Christmas sales at its stores compared with year-earlier numbers that were boosted by government stimulus, Chairman Harvey said on Jan. 7 in an interview. Advertisements for job vacancies on the Internet and in newspapers jumped last month by the most in 2 1/2 years, a survey by ANZ Bank showed this week. ‘Back to Capacity’ The labor market in “the mining sector is pretty much back to capacity,” Governor Stevens told economists in Sydney on Dec. 8. “There are a lot of other countries in the world who would like to have that problem.” Unemployment in Western Australia, at the centre of the nation’s iron ore and gas boom, fell to 5.1 percent last month from 5.2 percent. The jobless rate was 5.9 percent in New South Wales, 5.2 percent in Victoria and Tasmania, 5.9 percent in Queensland and 5.2 percent in South Australia, today’s report showed. The unemployment rate in the U.S. was 10 percent in December, the same as among European Union countries in November, where the rate was the highest in more than 11 years. Stevens is the only central banker in the world to raise borrowing costs three times since the height of the global financial crisis, predicting Chinese demand for iron ore will stoke economic growth in Australia, one of the few nations to skirt the global recession. Gas Boom Investors are betting there is a 72 percent chance of a quarter-point increase in the benchmark lending rate to 4 percent at the central bank’s next meeting on Feb. 2, according to Bloomberg calculations based on interbank futures on the Sydney Futures Exchange at 12:14 p.m. Chances of a quarter-point move in March are at 100 percent. Prior to today’s report, the chances of a February move were 60 percent. Chevron in December announced it signed an $82 billion deal with Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. to supply liquefied natural gas from its Wheatstone field in West Australia. The project is forecast to generate 6,500 jobs during construction. It is in addition to the Chevron-led Gorgon gas venture, which is forecast to create another 10,000 jobs when construction starts this year. The government is also stoking demand for workers as it spends A$22 billion on roads, ports, schools and hospitals. An index of business confidence rose in November to the highest level since May 2002, according to a National Australia Bank Ltd. survey published on Dec. 8. “Spare capacity in Australia is slowly becoming non- existent and we haven’t even started the second wave of the terms-of-trade upturn,” said Annette Beacher, a senior strategist at TD Securities Ltd. in Singapore. The participation rate, which measures the labor force as a percentage of the population aged over 15, held at 65.2 percent in December, today’s report showed.

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