Australia's unemployment rate stable at 3.5% in Dec 2022: ABS

Seasonally adjusted employment decreased by 15,000 people (0.1 per cent) in December 2022, following an increase of 58,000 people in November and average monthly growth of around 40,000 people between August and November 2022. The employment to population ratio also decreased, down 0.2 percentage points to 64.3 per cent. In historic terms, it continued to remain elevated, 1.9 percentage points above the pre-pandemic level, according to a press release by the ABS.

“With employment decreasing by around 15,000 people, and the number of unemployed increasing by 6,000 people, the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.5 per cent,” said Lauren Ford, head of labour statistics at the ABS. “The seasonally adjusted participation rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 66.6 per cent in December, back to around where it was in October. Despite this slight fall from its historic high, it finished the year 0.8 percentage points higher than its pre-pandemic level.”

Seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked decreased by 0.5 per cent for the second consecutive month, following the peak in October. The seasonally adjusted underemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.1 per cent, 2.7 percentage points below the pre-pandemic rate. The underutilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, rose 0.3 percentage points to 9.6 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms. This was 4.4 percentage points below March 2020.

Trend employment increased by 27,000 people (0.2 per cent) in December 2022, and trend monthly hours worked increased 0.3 per cent. These reflected a continuation of the pace of underlying growth in employment and hours worked seen during much of 2022, added the release.

The trend unemployment rate remained steady at 3.5 per cent and the underemployment rate remained steady at 6.0 per cent. The trend participation rate remained steady at 66.7 per cent.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (NB)