Australian unemployment rate rises to 4.5 per cent

Canberra, Oct 16 (IANS) Australia’s unemployment rate rose to the highest level in almost four years in September, according to official data published on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The monthly ABS labour force data said that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.5 per cent in September, the highest figure since November 2021.

The unemployment rate for August was revised upwards to 4.3 per cent on Thursday from the 4.2 per cent initially reported by the ABS in September, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Australia’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, said in forecasts released in August that it expected the unemployment rate to stabilize at around 4.3 per cent through 2026 and 2027.

According to the ABS, in seasonally adjusted terms, the number of unemployed Australians increased by 33,900 or 5.2 per cent between August and September, offsetting a rise in the number of employed Australians of 14,900 in the same period.

Sean Crick, head of labor statistics at the ABS, said that the labor force participation rate among working-age Australians rose as a result to 67.0 per cent in September, just below the record-high 67.2 per cent set in January.

The total number of hours worked by Australians was 0.5 per cent higher in September than in August.

Earlier in September, Australia’s central bank decided to keep interest rates on hold in a move that was widely anticipated by economists.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said that its Monetary Policy Board voted unanimously to keep the cash rate unchanged at 3.6 per cent during a meeting on Tuesday.

The board, which has cut the key interest rate by 0.25 percentage point three times in 2025 from 4.35 per cent at the start of the year, said on Tuesday that there are “uncertainties” about domestic economic activity and inflation stemming from local and international developments.

It acknowledged that Australia’s annual rate of headline and underlying inflation were within the RBA’s 2-3 per cent target band in the second quarter of 2025, but said inflation in the third quarter may be higher than previously forecast, according to the monetary policy decision statement.

“Uncertainty in the global economy remains elevated. There is a little more clarity on the scope and scale of US tariffs and policy responses in other countries, suggesting that more extreme outcomes are likely to be avoided,” the board said in the statement.

It said that trade policy developments are still expected to have an adverse effect on global economic growth, and that a broader range of geopolitical risks remain a “threat” to the global economy.

The Monetary Policy Board will next meet to consider changing the cash rate in early November.

–IANS

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