The Australian unemployment rate has unexpectedly dipped to 5.7 per cent in September, in the latest indication Australia's economy has defied the global recession.

Unemployment had remained at 5.8 per cent for the previous three months, despite the loss of 27,100 jobs in August.

The official employment survey's seasonally adjusted figures show 40,600 more jobs were created in September, with 35,400 of those being full-time positions.

The result was much better than the average economists' expectations of 10,000 jobs being lost for an unemployment rate of 6 per cent, and the surprise pushed the Australian dollar from 89.34 US cents immediately before the decision to 90.09 US cents straight afterwards.

The result goes some way to vindicating the Reserve Bank's surprise decision to raise interest rates on Tuesday, at least a month ahead of when most economists thought it would move.

JP Morgan's chief economist, Stephen Walters, was one of the very few economists who predicted the RBA's rate hike, and says more figures like these will see further rises coming sooner rather than later.

"It's a strong message, if you believe the numbers, that our economy is substantially outperforming the rest of the world," he told Reuters.

"After this, I think the chance of a November move has gone up a lot, although there is still a lot of water under the bridge. For example, next week's consumer confidence will likely take a hit from Tuesday's rate hike. I see rates at 4 percent by Q1 [the first quarter of] next year."

Ben Potter, a research analyst with IG Markets, says today's numbers could even mark the peak of unemployment.

"It's pretty obvious the RBA had an advanced read on today's employment numbers and can now more easily justify the reason they pulled the rates trigger," he wrote in an emailed note on the data.

"The creation of 40,000 jobs against forecast losses of 10,000, and the unemployment rate falling to 5.7 per cent, would certainly seem to suggest we have seen peak unemployment, particularly given the positive reads from recent forward looking indicators."

The participation rate also recovered from a drop last month, when people giving up looking for work was the main reason the unemployment rate remained stable despite a substantial loss of jobs.

That, combined with the strong increase in full-time jobs, meant that total hours worked last month increased by 13.4 million to more than 1.52 billion hours.

Stephen Walters says this is a good sign that there is a genuine recovery building in the employment market.

"It was a very, very strong number. Most of the increase was in full-time, and interestingly, unemployment went down even though more people entered the workforce."

NSW, Victoria lead

New South Wales had a strong drop in unemployment, with the jobless rate falling from 6.1 to 5.6 per cent seasonally adjusted.

So did Victoria, where the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 per cent in September, coming back from a steep upward jump to 6.2 per cent in August.

That has left Queensland with the highest unemployment rate in the country, after its jobless rate climbed from 5.5 to 6.3 per cent in the space of a month.

However, Westpac's economics team urges caution when looking at the monthly unemployment figures, which are based on a survey that can contain substantial statistical variations.

"One significant caution - the monthly employment data is volatile, and looking at the state split this month suggests noise at play," Westpac's economists wrote in a note.

"While employment rose in NSW (6,200) and Victoria (5,300), the sum of the state numbers gave a total employment rise of 22,900 - well below the aggregate published 40,600 rise. Also, the lion's share of the growth came in one of the smallest states by GDP size, South Australia, where employment rose 15,900."

However, the more stable national trend unemployment figure came in steady for the fourth straight month at 5.8 per cent, suggesting a plateau in the jobless rate is more than just statistical noise.