Jobless rate at lowest level since March even as full-time work slips

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Jobless rate at lowest level since March even as full-time work slips

By Shane Wright

The national unemployment rate edged down to 5.1 per cent in December even though the number of people holding down a full-time job fell.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday reported the jobless rate fell 0.1 percentage points last month after a drop in the number of people looking for work and a surge in part-time workers.

All jobs created in the month were part-time, with total full-time employment falling by 300.

All jobs created in the month were part-time, with total full-time employment falling by 300.Credit: Louie Douvis

The ABS reported 29,800 jobs were created during the month. All of them were part-time, with total full-time employment falling by 300.

Despite the drop in full-time employment in December, it still grew by 152,700 through 2019.

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The number of people looking for work dropped by 12,900. The number of people hoping to get a job and the overall jobless rate are now both at their lowest levels since March.

Markets had been expecting the creation of 20,000 jobs and a steady unemployment rate.

The result follows a 39,900 increase in employment in November and a downwardly revised 23,900 drop in October.

Capital Economics analyst Marcel Thieliant said the figures suggested last year's cuts in official interest rates by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) might be starting to work.

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"The RBA may still decide to cut interest rates in February because the current rate of wage growth isn't enough to meet its inflation target," he said. "But with spare capacity in the labour market starting to diminish, there is now less urgency to do so."

Across the states, there was a 20,600 lift in employment in NSW and a 10,300 jump in Victoria. In Western Australia, employment fell by 5300.

Despite the drop in WA, the jobless rate there fell to 5.4 per cent from 5.7 per cent. The biggest fall was in Queensland, where it dropped 0.6 percentage points to 5.7 per cent.

Victoria's unemployment rate lifted to 4.9 per cent despite the rise in total employment, while in NSW it edged down to 4.5 per cent.

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The ABS said the recent bushfires had disrupted its jobs survey in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, adding that most of its work had been done before the Christmas period. It said quality-assurance work had shown the disruptions did not affect the jobs survey result.

But the January survey is likely to have suffered more disruption due to the expansion of the bushfire threat.

"The ABS anticipates some localised impacts to the sample in particular regional areas and will undertake additional quality assurance to ensure that any impact on state and national estimates is minimised," it said.

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