Unemployment rises to 5.3% in November: Midday roundup

Unemployment rose during November with full-time employment dropping by 40,000, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The figures show total jobs fell 0.1% to 11.4 million, raising the unemployment rate to 5.3%. Economists had largely expected full-time employment to increase to about 5.25%.

Part-time employment rose by 33,600 to 3,430,800, as unemployment rose by 9,400.

The participation rate was 65.5%, in comparison with an unrevised rate of 65.6% in October.

Nine to cut debt by $1 billion

CVC has come up with an agreement with Goldman Sachs that could see Nine Entertainment slash its debt by as much as $1 billion.

According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Goldman Sachs will convert its debt into equity. The report claims that both CVC and Goldman will record a loss on their investments in Nine.

This comes after CVC said yesterday it had abandoned a deal to “amend and extend” the terms of Nine’s existing $2.7 billion debt.

The report claims that CVC is looking at classing that $2.7 billion in senior debt into two categories.

Shares flat after weak overseas leads

The Australian sharemarket has opened flat this morning after a weak lead from the United States, where investors are still watching carefully how debt talks in Europe will unfold.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 8 points or 0.19% to 4284.4 at 12.00 AEST, while the Australian dollar remained at $US1.02c.

AMP shares rose 0.46% to $4.34, while Commonwealth Bank shares lost 0.24% to $50.05. ANZ lost 0.55% to $21.12 as Westpac lost 0.37% to $21.53.

In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42 points or 0.35% to 12,192.36.

Hopes for swift debt crisis dimmed

Hopes for a swift resolution to the European debt crisis have been dashed after a German official said an outcome might not emerge until Christmas – despite Germany and France saying this week the matter was urgent.

A French official also suggested overnight that an accord that 17 nations will keep using the euro, rather than a new treaty among the European Union’s 27 members, is the likely outcome of this week’s European summit.

The comments follow a threatened downgrade of European bonds by Standard & Poor’s, and the release of a plan for eurozone countries to submit their economies to greater scrutiny from a central European authority.

Releasing the plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they were “convinced that we need to act without delay.”

Evans tight-lipped on compulsory arbitration speculation

Meanwhile, Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans is tight-lipped on speculation that a move towards compulsory arbitration might emerge from next year’s review of the Fair Work Act.

Evans told ABC Radio this morning that there was a “lot of rhetoric in this field, a lot of ideology, a lot of false claims.”

The Labor Party’s policy platform was changed at the weekend to allow for last-resort arbitration in enterprise agreements.

“People are rightly focused on whether a dispute has to get to the stage of a lockout of employees before arbitration is required,” Evans said.