Australia's jobless rate remained flat at 5 percent in January despite a drop in full-time employment, says ABS
February 10, 2011
Australia’s jobless rate remained flat at 5 percent in January as an additional 24,000 people joined the workforce.
As reported by the ABS today, the rise in employment (to 11.4 million) was driven by an increase in part-time employment, up 32,000 people to 3.4 million, seasonally adjusted.
This was partially offset by a decrease in full-time employment, down 8,000 people to 8.02 million.
The number of people unemployed increased by 8,900 people to 606,500 in January.
The ABS seasonally adjusted monthly aggregate hours worked series showed a decrease in January, down 12.7 million hours to 1,584.4 million hours.
Meanwhile, labour force participation in January was 65.9 percent, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from December.