The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 4.0 per cent in May, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
With employment rising by around 40,000 people and the number of unemployed falling by 9,000 people, the unemployment rate fell to 4.0 per cent.
In April we saw more unemployed people than usual waiting to start work. Some of the fall in unemployment and rise in employment in May reflects these people starting or returning to their jobs.
While the total number of unemployed people fell by 9,000 in May, this followed a 33,000 increase in April. Unemployment was around 24,000 people more than in March, an average increase of around 12,000 people each month.
“There are now almost 600,000 unemployed people, however, that is still nearly 110,000 fewer people than in March 2020, just before the pandemic.
As a result of the increase in employment and the fall in unemployment, the seasonally adjusted employment-to-population ratio remained at 64.1 per cent and the participation rate remained at 66.8 per cent.
The latest net overseas migration figures showed that Australia’s NOM was 178,500 in Q3 and 129,400 in Q4, totalling 307,900 for the half. This leaves only 87,100 worth of NOM over the first half of this year to meet the federal budget’s 395,000 NOM target for 2023-24.
Given that net permanent and long-term arrivals have remained hot so far in 2024, NOM is once again going to blow way past the budget’s forecast.
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