People who were previously not looking for work started moving back into the workforce as the job market tightened in August.
Seasonally adjusted unemployment rose to 4.6 percent during the month, figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show.
ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said August saw the highest proportion in recent years of people who were previously not in the labour force moving to being unemployed.
“The growth in the size of the labour force resulted in the participation rate increasing by 0.2 percentage points to 67.1 percent,” he said.
“This month there was 39,000 more people in employment, and 28,000 more people in unemployment.”
Part-time employment rose by 46,000 people in August, while full-time employment fell by 6000 people.
“Hours worked rose by 14 million hours in August after falling by the same amount in July,” Mr Crick said.
“This is partly due to having more employed people working zero hours last month compared to usual July months.”
The trend unemployment rate rose marginally to 4.6 percent in August, while trend employment grew by 0.2 percent and hours worked remained steady.
