Australia’s unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent in October, with the smallest increase in the number of people employed in six months.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, released today, showed employment rose by around 16,000 people last month, with the number of unemployed up by around 8000.
ABS Head of Labour Statistics Bjorn Jarvis said it was the third month in a row that the unemployment rate had been at 4.1 percent.
“This is around 0.6 percentage points above its recent low of 3.5 percent in June 2023, but is 1.1 percentage points below March 2020, when it was 5.2 percent,” Mr Jarvis said.
He said the number of unemployed people in October was 67,000 higher than a year ago, but was 82,000 people lower than in March 2020.
“While employment grew in October, the 0.1 percent increase was the slowest growth in recent months.
“This was lower than each of the previous six months, when employment rose by an average of 0.3 percent per month.”
He said population growth in October outpaced the small rise in employment and unemployment, meaning the participation rate fell slightly to 67.1 percent, while the employment-to-population ratio remained at the historical high of 64.4 percent.
Explore all the data: Labour Force, Australia, October 2024.
