FX.co ★ Australia Jobless Rate Rises Slightly In June

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday that Australia's unemployment rate saw a marginal increase in June despite a significant surge in employment figures.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate climbed to 4.1 percent in June, contrary to expectations that it would hold steady at 4.0 percent.

Employment numbers saw an impressive rise of 50,200 in June, substantially exceeding economists' predictions of a 20,000 increase.

The participation rate also edged up to 66.9 percent in June from 66.8 percent in May. Concurrently, the employment-to-population ratio improved by 0.1 percentage point to reach 64.2 percent.

Commenting on these figures, Bjorn Jarvis, head of labor statistics at the ABS, pointed out that both the employment-to-population ratio and the participation rate remain close to their peak levels for 2023.

"This, coupled with persistently high job vacancy rates, indicates that the labor market remains relatively tight, even though the unemployment rate has been above 4.0 percent since April," Jarvis elaborated.

Abhijit Surya, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that while job growth was robust last month, it wasn't sufficient to prevent a rise in the unemployment rate, which ticked up by 0.1 percentage point.

Surya further explained that the simultaneous increase in the participation rate and the rapid growth in the working-age population swelled the labor force by an even larger 59,900.

He cautioned that there are indications the labor market may experience a more pronounced cooling as labor demand appears to be softening.