The total number of people with jobs rose by 17,900 in the month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, which was better than expectations of a rise of 17,000.
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The composition of jobs growth reflected the economy’s transition away from mining to services industries, according to the Commonwealth Bank’s managing director of economics, Michael Blythe.
Australian unemployment was steady at 5.7 percent in May.
Full-time jobs are declining in Australia as the economy switches from mining to services with an accompanying rise in part-time employment. All numbers were seasonally adjusted.
Most economists agree Australia generally needs to create about 20,000 jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate stable. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 6,200 to 509,200 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 7,800 to 217,200.
Participation rate, a measure of labour force as a share of population, held at 64.8 per cent. Economists had predicted 64.9 per cent.
That also means Australians can expect weak income growth.
The Reserve Bank’s key rate trigger in recent months has been low inflation and Mr Bloxham tipped it to remain depressed on the back the May employment figures.
Commsec’s chief economist, Craig James, said there’s “no surprises” in ABS’s data. “Businesses want to see the election outcome before they commit to taking on more workers”.
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On a yearly basis, new motor vehicle sales climbed 1.7 percent – slowing from 2.2 percent in the previous month. The data showed hours worked is now just 0.49% below the all time high in January this year.
