Unemployment rate steady in October at 4.1%
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The news: The unemployment rate remained steady in October at 4.1%. This is the third consecutive month the jobless rate has not budged in the official figures.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) continues to describe the labour market as "relatively tight". While economists expected the unemployment rate to be relatively stable, this latest read has jobs creation a little lower than the market was expecting.
The numbers: Employment increased by 15,900 people while the number of unemployed jumped by 8000.
The participation rate fell to 67.1% but the employment-to-population ratio remained steady at 64.4%.
Monthly hours worked increased 0.1% in seasonally adjusted terms over the month, marking the sixth consecutive month in line with employment growth.
The underemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points, to 6.2%. The underutilisation rate was steady at 10.4%.
The context: The jobs figures are among the final data releases before the Reserve Bank meets in December for its final interest rate decision of the year.
The labour force data has continued to be more resilient than expected by economists and, in some parts, by the Reserve Bank which has a dual mandate to keep inflation at 2% to 3% and maintain full employment.
What they said: "This [the unemployment rate] is around 0.6 percentage points above its recent low of 3.5% in June 2023, but is 1.1 percentage points below March 2020, when it was 5.2%," said ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis.
“The number of unemployed people in October was 67,000 higher than a year ago, but was still 82,000 people lower than in March 2020.
“While employment grew in October, the 0.1% increase was the slowest growth in recent months. This was lower than each of the previous six months, when employment rose by an average of 0.3% per month."
The source: Australian Bureau of Statistics media release
