Australian Jobless Rate Holds Steady In August

Australia’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained unchanged at a near six-year high for the third consecutive month in August, an official report showed Thursday.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday that the jobless rate held steady at 5.8% for the third consecutive month in August, but came in lower than economists’ expectations for 5.9%. The last time the jobless rate stood at 5.8% for three consecutive months was in 2003, in August, September and October, respectively.

In August, even though the jobless rate was unchanged, the number of unemployed persons decreased slightly to 663,600 from 665,700 in the preceding month. The jobless rate for males decreased to 6% from 6.2%, while for females, the rate increased to 5.6% from 5.4%.

The number of employed persons also decreased slightly to 10.76 million from 10.79 million in the preceding month. The number looking for full-time work decreased by 8,800 to 488,100, while the number looking for part-time work increased by 6,600 to 175,500.

During the month, there were 11.42 million persons in the labor force, down from 11.45 million in the preceding month. The participation rate was also down to 65.1% from 65.3%.

Meanwhile, other indicators have pointed to an improvement in labor market conditions in the country. A report released by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations on Wednesday showed that the leading indicator of employment rose for the third consecutive month in September. The index increased to minus 0.962 for September from a revised reading of minus 1.123 in August.

The department said the indicator was tentatively foreshadowing a quickening in the pace of employment growth to above its long-term trend rate of 1.9% per annum. “Another three consecutive monthly increases in the indicator are required to confirm that there was a turning point in the indicator in June 2009″, it said.

The total job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet rose 4.1% in August, marking the first monthly rise since April last year, following a 1.7% fall in July, the ANZ Bank said last week.

Various economic news released earlier have also pointed to a recovery in the Australian economy. Business confidence jumped to its highest level in six years in August, reflecting better business conditions. An index measuring business confidence released by the National Australia Bank on Wednesday rose eight points to 18, the highest since October 2003. Moreover, consumer confidence jumped to a 13-month high in September. The Westpac/Melbourne consumer sentiment index rose 5.2% month-on-month in September to its highest level since July 2007.

Elsewhere on Thursday, the Melbourne Institute announced that its consumer inflationary expectations stood at 3.5% for the second consecutive month, with the proportion of persons expecting inflation to remain within the central bank’s target band of 2%-3% rising to 17.4%.

“It appears that last week’s robust GDP growth observed for the June quarter has not translated into a change in inflationary expectations, possibly because it was anticipated to some degree,” Sam Tsiaplias, a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute said.