Australian unemployment rises to 4.2 pc

CANBERRA: Australia's unemployment rate has risen to its highest level in over two years.

According to official data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, the unemployment rate increased to 4.2% in July, up from 4.1% in June, matching the highest figure since November 2021.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that economists had broadly expected the unemployment rate to remain steady at 4.1% in July.

The ABS stated that the total number of employed Australians increased by 58,200 between June and July to 14.46 million, but the number of unemployed people grew by 23,900 in the same period to 637,100, the highest since November 2021.

As a result, the participation rate, which measures the proportion of working-age Australians who are either employed or actively looking for work, rose from 66.9% in June to a record high of 67.1% in July.

"The employment-to-population ratio rose by 0.1 percentage point to 64.3%, indicating employment growth was faster than population growth, and was just below the historical high of 64.4% in November 2023," said Kate Lamb, head of labour statistics at the ABS, in a statement.

"The record high participation rate and near record high employment-to-population ratio show that there continues to be a high number of people in jobs, and looking for and finding jobs."

She noted that 4.2% of employed Australians worked reduced hours in July due to illness, similar to the levels in May and June and above the five-year pre-Covid July average of 3.6%.

By RSS/Xinhua