Unemployment rose to 4.5% in July

The unemployment rate increased in the last month, the ABS has reported.

Latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has risen to 4.5 per cent, a slight uptick following a hold at 4.4 per cent in June.

According to ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick, July saw a “16,000-person fall in employment, whilst the number of unemployed people rose by 4,000”.

He said: “The majority of the fall in employment came from males, which fell by 11,000 people. There were 10,000 fewer males employed part-time, and 1,000 fewer in full-time employment in July.

“Female employment recorded a smaller fall of 5,000, with females employed part-time falling by 22,000 but full-time rising by 17,000.”

Further, the employment-to-population ratio and the participation rate both fell 0.2 percentage points.

July saw 12 million fewer hours worked, divided by full-time and part-time workers as 7 million and 5 million, respectively. NSW and Western Australia both saw 8 million fewer hours worked.

While hours worked fell by 0.1 per cent in July, trend employment grew by 0.2 per cent.

Further, the underemployment rate rose to 6.4 per cent in July.

As reported in July, the June hold partly stemmed from “those who were waiting to start a job in May”, according to Crick, who remarked on the stronger June movement than in recent years,

The rise signals the economy is slowing down and labour market easing, potentially lessening the cause for further action. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) held the cash rate in August for the second time this year following three consecutive rate rises in February, March, and May.

On the August decision, the RBA board said that “the disruption to global oil supply is adding directly to inflation, and there are indicators that higher fuel prices are being passed through to prices of other goods and services, so inflation is likely to remain high for some time”.

“This inflation impulse is in addition to the effect of capacity pressures in the economy,” it said.

The next RBA decision is due in September.

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