Sydney :Australia’s unemployment rate is falling faster than anticipated, dropping sharply to 5% last month. The larger than expected decline in unemployment means the labour market is now meeting the Reserve Bank’s definition of “full employment”, the so-called non-accelerating-inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), though economists say it may still not be enough to spark noticeable wage rises.
Figures show the unemployment rate fell to 5% in September, from 5.3% in August, hitting the lowest level in six-and-a-half years.
In seasonally adjusted terms – a statistical technique that removes the effects of seasonal variation in employment – the number of employed persons increased by 5,600 last month, which was much weaker than the 45,000 new jobs in August. Australia failing to help long-term unemployed, report finds
But it was still enough to push the unemployment rate down to its lowest level since April 2012 (with some help from a sampling rotation, and a small decline in the participation rate from 65.7% to 65.4%).
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, welcomed the news about the unemployment rate, saying 1.15 million jobs had been created in the past five years.
