CANBERRA, Sep 15 (ABC): Australia’s unemployment rate has risen for the first time in 10 months as more people search for work. According to labor force data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, the official unemployment rate in August was 3.5 percent – up from 3.4 percent in July. It represents the first month-to-month increase since October 2021.
ABS data showed the economy added 33,000 jobs between July and August but the increase was offset by the participation rate growing from 66.4 to 66.6 percent. In order to be counted towards the ABS’s unemployment measure, a person must be actively looking for work. The participation rate in August was 0.7 percent higher than before the pandemic. There were 13.6 million Australians employed in August – including 9.5 million on a full-time basis. The monthly hours worked by Australians increased by 0.8 percent in August following a similar fall in July due to school holidays and higher corona-virus case numbers.
“COVID-19 and other illness-related worker absences continued to be reflected in hours worked in August,” Lauren Ford, head of labor statistics at the ABS, said in a media release. “The number of people working reduced hours due to being sick remained elevated in August, at around 760,000 people. This is around double the number we typically see at the end of winter.” The underemployment rate – which measures the proportion of those with jobs who want to work more hours – fell slightly from 6 to 5.9 percent.