The labour force stood at 145 100, while those persons not actively looking for work, hence excluded from the labour force, were 77 300. On quarter, the change was up 0.3 percent – also below expectations for 0.5 percent and down from 0.7 percent.
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The latest rise was the consecutive jump in unemployment rate since the third quarter of past year.
The NBS stated that within the same period, the total number in full employment, or those did something for at least 40 hours weekly decreased by 1,317,700 or -2.37 per cent.
Australia’s unemployment rate rose to its highest in six months in July even as the number of jobs added shot up nearly four times more than expected, a mixed bag that did little to clarify the outlook for another rate cut. The country’s benign inflation environment and deteriorating terms of trade spurred governor Graeme Wheeler to start lowering interest rates in June, and last week he said the country’s strong migration and labour force participation were among factors supporting the economy.
“Improving non-mining activity is lifting labour demand and offsetting job shedding in mining”, Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, said before the release.
“The strengthening employment growth figures are encouraging”, Senator Abetz said. Bay of Plenty had the second-highest employment growth, with 11,000 more people being employed over the year.
Unemployment there rose from 5.8 per cent to 6.4 per cent and above the national average.
Slowing economic growth appeared to flow through into the jobs market in the June quarter as employment growth was slower than expected and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate bounced to 5.9%.
According to figures from the Central Statistics Office released on Wednesday, the unemployment rate was unchanged in July, with some 208,900 people without a job, up by 300 on June, but down by 32,400 on July 2014.
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“This is the first time since the December 2013 quarter that the construction industry has not been the largest contributor to annual growth in employment”, Ms Ramsay said.
