Jobless rate drops to 5.1 per cent
By Kate Southam
Australia’s official unemployment rate fell to 5.1 per cent in August from 5.3 per cent in July after 30,900 new jobs were created.
Full-time employment rose by 53,100 to 7.9204 million in August and part-time employment was down by 22,100 to 3.352 million.
The participation rate in August was 65.4 per cent, a slight fall from the unrevised July figure of 65.5 per cent.
Around the country results were mixed with NSW enjoying the biggest boost to employment.
| State | August (per cent) | July (per cent) |
| Western Australia | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| NSW | 5 | 5.5 |
| Queensland | 5.4 | 5.6 |
| South Australia | 5.4 | 5.1 |
| Victoria | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Tasmania | 6.0 | 6.5 |
| ACT | 3.1 | 3.4 |
| Northern Territory | 3.0 | 2.6 |
The national youth unemployment rate fell from 18 per cent to 17.8 per cent.
The release of the ABS figures follows a week of jobs data including from recruitment firm Advantage and the ANZ Bank.
The Advantage Job Index measures the number of online job ads each month. According to its data, online job ads overall increased by 2.81 per cent nationally since last month and 10.13 per cent when compared to last year.
The ICT job ads increased by 2.91 per cent in August, seasonally adjusted. ICT jobs made up 11 per cent of the total jobs advertised online last month. Mining and engineering ads have grown 29.97 per cent over the past six months.
The ANZ job advertisements survey showed newspaper job ads grew by 6.6 per cent in NSW last month compared with only 1.5 per cent nationally.
Meanwhile, Manpower predicts the pace of hiring will slow in the next three months – not untypical for the Christmas season.
A survey of 2,200 employers across Australia found the seasonally adjusted new employment outlook is at +19 per cent – a five percentage point drop from the last quarter’s outlook.
Article from CareerOne, September 10, 2010.
