Australia’s unemployment rate rose unexpectedly in February, though total employment also climbed as more people moved into part-time work.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate grew by 0.2 percentage points to 4.3% last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said. This represents an increase of 35,000 people and surpassed Westpac forecasts of 4.1%.
“This month we saw fewer people who were unemployed and waiting to start a job in January move into employment in February, compared to recent Februarys,” said ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick.
“We also saw more people remaining unemployed this month compared to recent Februarys.”
Despite the rise in unemployment, the labour force participation rate increased from 66.7% to 66.9%, and total employment climbed by 48,900 to 14,748,700 people.
This was largely due to growth in part-time employment, which was up 79,000 to 4,631,800 people.
“This month we saw more people move into part-time employment, particularly those aged 65 and over,” said Crick. “Additionally, this month we saw that fewer people are leaving jobs to retire compared to a year ago.”
Hours worked also dropped by 0.2% to 2.007 billion in February as the number of Australians in part-time employment increased.
The number of people in full-time employment fell by 30,500 to 10,117,000, and the underemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.9%.
This data follows the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to raise interest rates by 0.25% on Tuesday. The central bank's board members were split five to four, with the majority citing persistent inflation for the increase.
