Australia's unemployment rate crept higher in August as full-time employment fell by 6,000 people, providing a surprise result in the last major economic data release ahead of the central bank's upcoming monetary policy meeting.
The country's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged 20 basis points higher from the previous month to 4.6% in August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
The number of employed Australians increased by 39,500 from July to reach about 14.8 million, while the ranks of the unemployed swelled by 28,200 to 722,900 people.
"This August we recorded a higher proportion of people who were previously not in the labor force moving to being unemployed, compared to recent years," said Sean Crick, head of labor statistics at the ABS.
That labor force expansion resulted in the participation rate, which measures the percentage of the working-age population who either hold a job or are actively looking for one, rising to 67.1% in August from 66.9% in July.
The official data also showed Australia's employment-to-population ratio holding steady at 63.9%, and the underemployment rate sliding by 10 basis points to 6.2%. Across all jobs, the volume of monthly hours worked increased to just over 2 billion in August.
Westpac expected the jobless rate to hold steady at 4.5%, saying in a recent report that it anticipates a slowing in the pace of employment growth through the second half of this year as headwinds are building.
Australia's central bank is due to meet again next week for a decision on interest rates. Governor Michele Bullock hinted at a potential rate hike during her opening speech to a House of Representatives' standing committee, saying that some upside risks to inflation appear to be materializing despite the economy's decelerating growth.
