Australia’s unemployment rate rose slightly in July, despite a record high participation rate.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 4.2 percent in July.
ABS Head of Labour Statistics Kate Lamb said the number of unemployed grew by 24,000 people and employed by around 58,000 last month.
“This combined increase lifted the participation rate to a record high of 67.1 percent,” Ms Lamb said.
“The employment-to-population ratio rose by 0.1 percentage point to 64.3 percent, indicating employment growth was faster than population growth and was just below the historical high of 64.4 percent in November 2023.”
Ms Lamb said although the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percent in each of the past two months, the record high participation rate and near record high employment-to-population ratio showed that there continued to be a high number of people in jobs and looking for and finding jobs.
“While unemployment increased to 637,000 people in July, the highest it has been since November 2021, it remains around 70,000 people below its pre-pandemic level.
“The unemployment rate of 4.2 percent was also the highest since November 2021, but was 1.0 percentage point lower than March 2020,” Ms Lamb said.
