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As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for May, which registered a further 227,700 fall in total employment, which follows April’s 607,400 decline. Meanwhile, Australia’s unemployment rate surged by 0.7% to 7.1% despite the participation rate falling further:
Again, total employment collapsed by a seasonally adjusted 227,700 to 12,154,100. Full-time jobs fell by 89,100, whereas part-time employment fell by 138,600:
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The participation rate dived another 0.7% to 62.85%, which is why the unemployment rate only rose by 0.7%:
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.