Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged down to 4.4% in May from April’s more than four-year high of 4.5%, matching market expectations. The number of unemployed people fell by 18,300 to 671,300, from 689,600 in April. Among them, the number of part-time job seekers declined by 9,700 to 240,200, while the number seeking full-time work decreased by 8,600 to 440,800.
Total employment rose by 40,300 to 14.74 million, beating forecasts for a 30,000 increase and marking the strongest employment gain since December. This followed an upwardly revised loss of 40,700 jobs in the previous month. Full-time employment increased by 5,900 to 10.14 million, and part-time employment grew by 35,200 to 4.60 million.
The participation rate inched up to 66.7% from a downwardly revised 66.6% in April—its lowest level in five months—and was in line with market expectations. The underemployment rate ticked higher to 5.9% from 5.8%. Meanwhile, total monthly hours worked across all jobs fell by 22 million to 2,010 million.
