The unemployment rate came in slightly tighter in September at 4.1 per cent, but employment growth remained ahead of market expectations for a second month in a row at 64,000.
While consensus was for an unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent, employment was expected to peak at around 25,000.
Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday showed that the number of unemployed people fell by around 9,000.
Despite the slight fall in the number of unemployed people, the strong rise in employment saw the participation rate rise by 0.1 percentage point to a record high of 67.2 per cent.
“Employment has risen by 3.1 per cent in the past year, growing faster than the civilian population growth of 2.5 per cent. This has contributed to the increase in the employment-to-population ratio by 0.1 percentage point, and 0.4 percentage points over the past year, to a new historical high of 64.4 per cent,” said Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics.
Jarvis explained that the record employment-to-population ratio and participation rate shows that there are still large numbers of people entering the labour force and finding work in a range of industries, as job vacancies continue to remain above pre-pandemic levels.
“While the number of unemployed people fell slightly to 616,000 in September, overall the number of unemployed people has risen by around 90,000 people since September 2023. Despite this rise over the last year, there are still around 93,000 fewer unemployed people than there were just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the unemployment rate was at 5.2 per cent,” Jarvis said.
The trend unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 per cent for September, for the fourth month in a row.
More to come.
