The September jobs report was released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in October, 2016. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped a notch to 5.6 percent in September compared to a revised update of 5.7 percent in August. While the unemployment rate was the lowest since September 2013, the figures came in below market expectations.
The following table highlights the main stats in the unemployment figures:
.PNG)
Labour Force September Figures (Source: ABS)
Key takeaways
According to the trend estimates, although full- time employment increased by 3,900, it fell by 53,000 in the seasonally adjusted figures. Trend employment has risen by 152,600 (or 1.3 per cent) over the past 12 months and this is below the average percentage year-on-year growth over the last 20 years (1.8 per cent). Further, unemployment has decreased by 44,800 persons over the past year.
The rise in part-time employment by 43,200 partially compensated for the decline in full-time employment. Part-time labour has seen a steady increase over the last year whereas full-time employment has fallen by 0.4 percent during the same period.
The seasonally adjusted participation rate by the labour force came in at 64.5 percent in September from 64.7 percent during the prior month, a two-and-a-half-year’ low level, with the participation rate among men sliding to 70.1 percent, the lowest in history. The rate for women was however firm at 59.1 percent.
The trend estimates of monthly hours worked in all jobs rose by 2.2 million hours to 1,660.4 million hours and the seasonally adjusted figures increased by 4.0 million hours to 1,660.0 million hours.
On the other hand, the employment to population ratio has remained unchanged at 61.0 per cent.
ABS also highlighted that it had altered the headline figure because the incoming rotation sample for Queensland seem to be considerably different to the rest of the Queensland sample.
To summarize the jobs data:
Although the number of job openings continue to rise, it is happening at a pace below expectations. Secondly, labour requirements are scattered. Finally, as the data indicates, the rise in employment is due to the continual shift to part-time labour.
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