The ABS released their Labour Force statistics for June 2014 today. Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 6.0 per cent in June 2014
The seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 64.7 per cent in June 2014. The number of people employed increased by 15,900 to 11,578,200 in June 2014 (seasonally adjusted). The increase in total employment was due to increased female employment (both full-time and part-time) and increased male part-time employment, offset by a fall in male full-time employment. Part-time employment increased by 19,700 people to 3,515,700 and full-time employment decreased by 3,800 people to 8,062,500.
The ABS monthly seasonally adjusted aggregate hours worked series increased in June 2014, up 15.1 million hours (0.9 per cent) to 1,629.1 million hours. The seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed increased by 20,300 to 741,700 in June 2014.
There are still considerable state variations, with unemployment lowest in the ACT (3.3%) and WA (4.9%), and highest in TAS (7.3%) and SA (6.8%).
As unemployment creeps higher, more households with large mortgages will be under pressure. We will be updating our mortgage stress modelling shortly.
