Australia’s unemployment rate was steady at 5.8 per cent in April, official figures show.
South Australia’s job figures improved with a sharp drop in seasonally adjusted terms, down to 6.3 per cent from last month’s 7.1 per cent, ending a run of high figures that goes back to last July when the state recorded a 10-year high of 7.0 per cent.
On trend estimates South Australia’s unemployment rate barely moved, down to 6.6 per cent from the March figure of 6.7 per cent.
Nationally, the total number of people with jobs rose 14,200 to 11.573 million in the month, according to seasonally adjusted figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
Full-time employment rose 14,200 to 8.045 million in April and part-time employment was unchanged at 3.528 million.
The participation rate – the proportion of the population that have a job, are looking for work or are ready to start work fell to 64.7 per cent, from 64.8 per cent in March.
State figures:
Stay informed, daily
- NSW – 5.4%, up from 5.2% in March
- Vic – 6.4%, unchanged
- Qld – 6.3%, up from 6.1%
- SA – 6.3%, down from 7.1%
- WA – 4.9%, unchanged
- Tas – 7.6%, unchanged
Economists warned today that a tough federal budget could see a deterioration in the jobs market.
“It’s certainly something that will impact on sentiment, if nothing else, and that sometimes encourages businesses to become a bit more cautious in labour hiring and, of course, there’s a risk that public sector employment takes a hit,” Commonwealth Bank chief economist Michael Blythe said.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
