Australia Unemployment Rate Falls

(RTTNews) - Australia's unemployment rate dropped marginally in May, data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

The jobless rate stood at 4.4 percent in May, down from 4.5 percent in April and in line with expectations.

The number of employed increased by 40,300 from the previous month to 14.74 million. Data showed that full-time employment increased by 5,200 and part-time employment rose 35,200.

At the same time, unemployment decreased by 18,300 to 671,300 in May. The youth unemployment rate decreased 0.6 percentage point to 10.4 percent.

"Over the past few months, we have recorded higher proportions of unemployed people waiting to start jobs who then remained unemployed in the following month," ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said.

However, the backlog of people waiting to start a job has eased in May, Crick noted. Further, data showed that hours worked was down 1.1 percent in May after a 0.9 percent rise last month.

"In April, less people took leave during the Easter holiday period and instead worked their usual hours, contributing to non-seasonal strength in hours worked," Crick said.

Crick observed that the fall in May brings hours worked back in line with employment growth since the end of the pandemic in June 2022.