Number with jobs rose 17,900 in the month but all of them were part-time, says Australian Bureau of Statistics

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The unemployment rate was steady at 5.7% in May but no full-time jobs have been added in three months.

The number of people with jobs rose 17,900 in the month, all of them part-time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Full-time employment was steady after falling 27,300 over the previous two months.

The composition of jobs growth reflected the economy’s transition away from mining to services industries, according to the Commonwealth Bank’s managing director of economics, Michael Blythe. It also meant Australians could expect weak income growth.

“Typically all those service jobs pay less than those mining and construction jobs, where a lot of the employment losses have been, so you’re getting that lower-income effect coming through,” Blythe said.

Spare capacity in the labour market has also increased, said RBC Capital Markets strategist Michael Turner.

The official figures showed the quarterly under-utilisation rate, a measure of the number of people with work but looking for more, had risen 0.1%.

“The labour market definitely hasn’t tightened over the last few months, it’s actually weakened,” Turner said. “That’s consistent with ongoing inflationary pressure and further Reserve Bank easing.”

The participation rate, which refers to the number of people either employed or actively looking for work, was steady in May at 64.8%.