The unemployment rate in Australia was a seasonally adjusted 6.2 percent in April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday – in line with expectations, and up from 6.1 percent in March.
The Australian economy lost 2,900 jobs last month to 11,724,600 – missing expectations for an increase of 4,000 jobs following the increase of 37,700 jobs in the previous month.
Full-time employment decreased 21,900 to 8,115,900 and part-time employment increased 19,000 to 3,608,600.
Unemployment increased 7,000 to 769,500. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 2,700 to 541,500 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 9,800 to 228,000.
The decrease in employment was driven by decreases in full-time employment for males (down 47,900) and part-time employment for females (down 10,700). These were offset by increases in male part-time employment (up 29,700) and female full-time employment (up 26,000).
The participation rate was 64.8 percent, in line with forecasts and unchanged from the previous month.
Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 17.8 million hours (1.1 percent) to 1,651.9 million hours.
Also on Thursday, the latest survey from the Australian Industry Group showed that the construction sector in Australia swung back to contraction in April, with a PMI score of 47.0.
That’s down sharply from 50.1 in March, and it moves back beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
Among the individual components of the survey, new orders and employment suffered the largest drops – while house construction expanded.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com