Australia unemployment rate rises to 4.7 per cent

Australia's unemployment rate rose to 4.7 per cent in September, reaching its highest level in nearly five years, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The figure surprised economists who had anticipated an increase in employment of 20,000 jobs; instead, the total number of employed Australians fell by 39,300.

Sean Crick, head of labour statistics at the ABS, noted that the employment-to-population ratio fell to 63.6 per cent and the participation rate decreased to 66.8 per cent. The underemployment rate saw a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points to 6.3 per cent.

While part-time hours worked fell by 1.5 per cent, full-time hours rose by 0.4 per cent. Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated that although labour market conditions have eased, the jobs market remains resilient despite the modest softening observed in the September data.