You have to ask the question: are the ABS stats on employment, which were released today, meaningful? Because according to the data for July, a record share of Australians are either working or looking for a job and about 58,000 people found work last month. The increase in employment was not enough to stop the jobless rate from rising to 4.2 per cent last month from 4.1 per cent in June, (though less than 1% on a two decimal rounding) as the share of the working-age population with a job or looking for one climbed to a record high of 67.1 per cent.
This was better than market expectations for gains of 20,000 and accorded with the RBA’s view that the labour market is cooling, but only very gradually, so it appears to show its holding up in the face of a rapidly cooling economy. This will keep pressure on the Reserve Bank of Australia to maintain high interest rates.
The first question of course is where did all if the extra workers come from? Perhaps the mega high immigration where the influx of migrants, who are relatively likely to work, helps to explain the data, as well as financial pressure on local workers to grab more work, and multiple jobs to try and make ends meet. There is no good analysis to split these two factors apart, perhaps surprisingly, or perhaps not! But we know multiple job holders continues to rise.
Across the states, Victoria had the highest unemployment rate of 4.6% in seasonally adjusted terms. Western Australia had the lowest at 3.7%, reflecting the very different economic stories across the states. The participation rate was highest in the NT and ACT, at 73.6% and 72.9% respectively and lowest in Tasmania at 60.3%.
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