Australia’s unemployment rate has edged higher as around 19,000 people went without work in November.
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found the unemployment rate rose 0.1 per cent to 3.9 per cent, despite employment also rising by 61,000 people.
Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said the proportion of employed Australians continued to be very high.
The jobs where you can earn around $2000 per week
“The combination of strong growth in both employment and unemployment in November saw the employment-to-population ratio return to a record high of 64.6 per cent and the participation rate reach a new high of 67.2 per cent,” he said.
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“We have continued to see employment growth keeping pace with high population growth through 2023.
“The employment-to-population ratio has been high for a long time now, between 64.4 per cent and 64.6 per cent since February 2023, and between 64.3 per cent and 64.6 per cent for the past 18 months.
“Similarly, participation continues to be high. In addition to strong employment growth over the past year, the number of unemployed people has also increased by around 81,000 people, and the unemployment rate has risen by 0.4 percentage points.
“However, both unemployment measures remain well below their pre-pandemic levels.”
