As summarised earlier by Houses & Holes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released labour force data for the month of August, which registered a sharp retracement in the headline unemployment rate to 6.1% from a 6.4% in July. The result beat analyst’s expectations of a 0.1% fall in the headline unemployment rate to 6.3%. In trend terms, unemployment rose to 6.2% in August – the highest unemployment since November 2002 (see next chart).
Total employment rocketed by a seasonally adjusted 121,000 to 11,703,500 in August. The increase in jobs was comprised of a 14,300 increase in full-time jobs and a 106,700 increase in part-time jobs. However, the aggregate monthly hours worked increased by only 0.1 million hours (less than 0.01%) to 1 ,609.5 million hours.
