Australia's unemployment rate held steady at 4.1% in September, matching the revised figure for August, according to seasonally adjusted data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday.
The steady rate follows a rise in employment, with 64,000 more people employed in September and a slight decrease in the number of unemployed individuals by 9,000.
Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, noted that despite the fall in unemployment, the strong rise in employment led to a 0.1 percentage point increase in the participation rate, reaching a record high of 67.2%.
“Employment has risen by 3.1% in the past year, growing faster than the civilian population growth of 2.5%. This has contributed to the increase in the employment-to-population ratio by 0.1 percentage point, and 0.4 percentage points over the past year, to a new historical high of 64.4%."
He noted that the record participation rate reflects continued demand in the labour market, with job vacancies remaining above pre-pandemic levels.
Meanwhile, the underemployment rate, which measures those employed but seeking more hours, fell by 0.1 percentage point to 6.3%. This was lower than the rate recorded in September 2023 and significantly below the March 2020 figure of 8.7%.
The overall underutilisation rate, combining unemployment and underemployment, also dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 10.4%.
The trend unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1% for the fourth consecutive month. Trend employment grew by 44,000, or 0.3%, outpacing the pre-pandemic average growth rate of 0.2%.
Hours worked grew by 0.2%, slightly behind the rate of employment growth.
Jarvis commented on the continued strength of the labour market: "The trend employment and participation measures are at an all-time high, while unemployment and underemployment measures are still low, especially compared with what we saw before the pandemic. This suggests the labour market continues to be relatively tight.”
Meanwhile, Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) has launched its Total New Vacancies (TNV) series – a new data source that estimates the total number of job openings across the country each quarter.