Well done Australia?

Australian employers last month added more than double the number of workers economists had forecast, driving up the local dollar against all other Group of 10 currencies and propelling the nation’s stocks higher.

The number of people employed gained 54,600 from October, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. That compares with the median forecast for a 20,000 increase in a Bloomberg News survey of 26 economists. The jobless rate fell to 5.2 percent from 5.4 percent a month earlier.

A stronger labor market may help bolster consumer spending after the Australian economy expanded in the third quarter at the slowest pace in almost two years. Central bank Governor Glenn Stevens this week left interest rates unchanged at 4.75 percent, citing few signs of near-term inflation pressure.

“The labor market is the driving force in the economy,” John Honan, chief economist at Ausbil Dexia Ltd. in Sydney, said before the report.

The number of full-time jobs advanced 55,100 in November and part-time employment was little changed, falling by 400, today’s report showed. Australia’s participation rate, which measures the labor force as a percentage of the population over 15 years old, increased to 66.1 percent in November from 65.9 percent a month earlier, it showed.