Labour Force figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today are encouraging but demonstrate a continued underlying softness in the labour market.
This month’s figures show a 0.3 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent while the participation rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 65.2 per cent.
This is the highest monthly increase in employment ever recorded, however, jobs data can be volatile from month to month.
Employment increased by 121,000 in August and is now 236,500 higher than at the start of the year.
“Today’s figures are encouraging but the volatility in numbers show that the labour market is soft and employers still have concerns about taking on new employees,” Employment Minister Senator Eric Abetz said.
“Since coming to office, the Government has abolished the carbon tax, abolished the mining tax, reduced red tape and has signed Free Trade Agreements with Japan and Korea to help create more job opportunities for Australians,” Treasurer Joe Hockey said.
“The best way that we can continue to grow jobs is for the Senate to pass the Government’s measures to fix the budget and support economic growth,” the Treasurer concluded.