Australia’s job market demonstrated strength in August as employment numbers surged by 64.9k, a 0.5% mom increase, substantially eclipsing expectation of 24.3k. Dissecting this growth reveals a modest increment in full-time jobs, which saw rise of 2.8k, whereas part-time positions surged, accounting for 62.1k rise.
Unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7%, aligning with market anticipations. Concurrently, there was a slight uptick in participation rate, which climbed by 0.1% to reach 67.0%. Monthly hours worked dropped -0.5% mom or -9m hours.
Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at ABS, contextualized this development, linking the pronounced growth in August to a minor slump experienced in July, a period coinciding with school holidays. The two-month average employment increment was roughly around 32k monthly, mirroring the mean growth observed over the past year.
“The strength in hours worked over the past year, relative to employment growth, shows the demand for labour is continuing to be met by people working more hours, to some extent,” Jarvis noted.
