There was some much awaited good news for South Australia in today’s unemployment figures: SA recorded a solid drop in its volatile seasonally adjusted figure down to 5.9 per cent from its July figure of 7.2 per cent.
The more reliable “trend” figure shows a drop from 6.8 per cent to 6.7 per cent, the second successive monthly fall in the trend rate.
Australia’s unemployment rate fell to 6.1 per cent in August, today’s official figures show.
The August figure is down on July’s 6.4 per cent.
The total number of people with jobs in Australia rose 121,000 to 11.704 million in August, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
The unemployment rate was expected to fall to 6.3 per cent in August, with 10,000 jobs added to the economy, according to an AAP survey of 11 economists.
Full-time employment rose 14,300 to 8.094 million in August and part-time employment was up 106,700 to 3.609 million.
The participation rate – those that have a job, are looking for work or are ready to start work – rose to 65.2 per cent, from 64.8 per cent in July.
State by state
* NSW – 5.7% down from 5.9% in July
* Vic – 6.8% down from 7.0%
* Qld – 6.7% down from 6.8%
* SA – 5.9% down from 7.2%
* WA – 5.0% down from 5.2%
* Tas – 7.1% down from 7.6%
Although the unemployment rate had dropped significantly, it was still higher than levels seen earlier in the year, suggesting the labour market remained soft, JP Morgan economist Tom Kennedy said.
“It still does add to the theme that the labour market has softened a bit which is consistent with the idea of sub-trend growth and pretty challenging domestic conditions,” Mr Kennedy said.
“One month doesn’t make a trend and you’ve really got to look at what’s been happening over the past few months.”
Mr Kennedy said the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures were encouraging but looked a little bit too good to be true.
“The ABS has gone to great lengths to put to bed that their methodology is fine but it still looks like there are a few funny things going on there,” Mr Kennedy said.
Full-time employment rose 14,300 to 8.094 million in August and part-time employment was up 106,700 to 3.609 million.
The participation rate – those that have a job, are looking for work or are ready to start work – rose to 65.2 per cent, from 64.8 per cent in July.
CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian said the strong employment gain confirms jobs growth is strengthening.
“The Reserve Bank has said that the leading indicators are suggesting a turnaround in the jobs market – advertisements are lifting and hours worked are lifting,” he said.
“Overall this is a good result for the Australian economy, it will help support confidence and that’s the key ingredient at the moment.”
