As reported by the Prince earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released labour force data for the month of July, which reported a slight reduction in the headline unemployment rate to 5,2% from 5.3% in June (originally reported as 5.2% but revised upwards).
The economy added 14,000 jobs (+0.1%) over the month , with 9,200 of those being full-time. The labour force participation rate also fell slightly, down -0.1% to 65.2%.
The employment market has basically been tracking sideways since November 2010, which is a reasonable result given the state of the global economy:
At the state level, Western Australia has dominated jobs growth over the past year on the back of the mining boom, with New South Wales and Victoria also experiencing modest jobs growth:
This is also reflected in unemployment rates, with Western Australia the star performer, dragging down the national average:
Aggregate hours worked across the economy have been falling recently, but managed a decent bounce in July, up 0.8%:
Aggregate hours are down -0.2% nationally over the year, however, with only Western Australia experiencing decent growth:
Finally, for what it’s worth, the gap between the official ABS unemployment rate and the unofficial Roy Morgan Research unemployment rate has widened to 4.5%, which is well above the 2.2% average divergence over the life of the series:
Overall, it’s a solid result that adds to the run of positive economic data released over the past few weeks.
Twitter: Leith van Onselen. Leith is the Chief Economist of Macro Investor, Australia’s independent investment newsletter covering trades, stocks, property and yield. Click for a free 21 day trial.
