The latest national figures show that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 5.2 per cent for September 2019, an improvement of 0.1 per cent on the previous month’s figures.
Australia’s unemployment rate also remained steady, sitting at 5.3 per cent.
Weighing in on the statistics, ABS’ chief economist Bruce Hockman said "all of Australia's key trend measures remained steady in September 2019, with the unemployment rate at 5.3 per cent and the participation rate at 66.2 per cent”.
Employment and hours
In September 2019, employment overall increased by around 20,200 people, with full-time employment increasing by around 9,000 people.
It continues a trend from the past 12 months, where employment has increased by around 300,000 people, sitting above the annual average growth for the past 20 years.
Underemployment and underutilisation
The monthly underemployment rate remained steady at 8.4 per cent in September 2019, which was an increase of 0.1 percentage points over the past year. The trend monthly underutilisation rate remained steady at 13.7 per cent, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the past year.
Advertised roles
The release of a Seek employment report coincides with the ABS’ figures release, and portrayed an advertised jobs decline of 7.4 per cent year on year to September 2019.
According to Seek Australia and New Zealand’s managing director Kendra Banks, such a stat indicates a “slight improvement in the market with the rate of job ad decline moderating”.
For September, the decline sat at -7.4 per cent compared to August, which was -8.6 per cent.
Community Services and Development (18.5 per cent) did lead as the sector with the highest job ad growth for September, 2019 (v Sept 2018), followed by Farming, Animals and Conservation (13.4 per cent), Education and Training (7.8 per cent) and Healthcare and Medical (7.4 per cent).
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