Australia's unemployment rate climbs to 5.8 per cent to its highest level in four years

Updated

Australia's unemployment rate has climbed to a post-global financial crisis high of 5.8 per cent, in line with economists' forecasts.

The figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the jobless rate edged up by 0.1 per cent in August.

Full-time jobs fell by 2,600, while 8,200 part-time jobs were lost.

But there was an increase in the total number of hours worked during the month.

It increased by 1.1 million hours to 1.65 billion hours.

Youth unemployment climbed to 17.3 per cent, its highest level since October 2010.

Unemployment has been rising since November last year, and is now just 0.1 per cent below the peak seen during the depths of the global financial crisis four years ago.

The participation rate, which measures the number of people working or looking work, fell by 0.1 per cent to a near seven-year low of 65 per cent.

Tasmania's jobless rate climbs, South Australia's rate falls

Tasmania continues to have Australia's highest unemployment rate, rising from 8.4 per cent to 8.6 per cent, in trend terms.

State by state New South Wales: up by 0.2 per cent to 5.9 per cent.

up by 0.2 per cent to 5.9 per cent. Victoria: flat on 5.7 per cent.

flat on 5.7 per cent. Queensland: up by 0.1 per cent to 6 per cent.

up by 0.1 per cent to 6 per cent. South Australia: down by 0.3 per cent to 6.8 per cent.

down by 0.3 per cent to 6.8 per cent. Western Australia: up by 0.4 per cent to 5 per cent.

up by 0.4 per cent to 5 per cent. Tasmania: up by 0.2 per cent to 8.6 per cent.

up by 0.2 per cent to 8.6 per cent. Northern Territory: up by 0.1 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

up by 0.1 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Australian Capital Territory: flat on 3.7 per cent.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics. All figures seasonally adjusted, except Tasmania, NT and ACT, which are expressed in trend terms.



Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics. All figures seasonally adjusted, except Tasmania, NT and ACT, which are expressed in trend terms.

In New South Wales it climbed from 5.7 per cent to 5.9 per cent, while Queensland's rate edged up to 6 per cent.

South Australia's rate fell from 7.1 per cent to 6.8 per cent.

The jobless figures come as businesses and consumers show renewed optimism about the future of Australia's economy.

Under-employment rate jumps are workers continue to look for more hours

Meanwhile, the number of employed people who say the want to work more hours has climbed to 7.8 per cent of the workforce.

When combined with the unemployment rate, that means 13.7 cent of people are either unemployed or do not have enough work.

That figure is 18.5 per cent in Tasmania and 14.9 per cent in South Australia.

The jobless figures come as businesses and consumers show renewed optimism about the future of Australia's economy.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer confidence index, released yesterday, rose by 4.7 for September.

Tuesday's National Australia Bank business sentiment survey revealed businesses were confident that the change of government would improve trading conditions.

But they still showed a reluctance to take on new staff.

Meanwhile, the latest ANZ Bank survey of job advertisements revealed a fall of 1.1 per cent in July.

JP Morgan senior economist Ben Jarman says while sentiment has picked up, the real economy remains weak.

"We need to see evidence of better hiring intentions, evidence of better spending intentions or evidence of greater appetite for credit growth," he said.

"Those are the things post-election which we'll be looking at. Until we see evidence of that, we're a little bit reluctant to get on board that whole confidence argument."

The result was 19 per cent lower than during the same month last year.

The Australian dollar dropped after the employment figures were released.

At 12:30pm (AEST), it was buying 92.66 US cents.

Topics: business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends, australia

First posted