Full time jobs rose far less than expected and the jobless rate ticked up to 4.5% in September in a disappointing labour market report

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.5 per cent in September, up from a revised 4.3 per cent in August, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: ‘This is the highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate recorded since November 2021.

‘There were 34,000 more unemployed people in September. The number of employed people also grew, up 15,000 in the same period.

‘As a result of these increases, the participation rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 67.0 per cent, although this is below the record high of 67.2 per cent we saw at the beginning of the year,’ Mr Crick said.

The employment-to-population ratio remained steady at 64.0 per cent.

A rise in both males and females seeking work contributed to the rise in the number of unemployed people in September. The number of unemployed males rose by 24,000 to 370,000, while the number of unemployed females rose by 10,000 to 314,000.

Total employment rose 14,900 which was close the expected 17,000 expected.

Full-time employment rose by 9,000, which was a result of full-time employed males increasing by 23,000 and full-time employed females decreasing by 15,000. Analysts had expected full-time employment to rise by about 23,000 however.

Part-time employment rose by 6,000. This was driven by more females employed part-time, up 19,000, while males employed part-time fell 13,000.

Hours worked rose by 0.5 per cent in September, higher than the 0.1 per cent rise in employment.

The data is here.