Unemployment has risen by 0.2 per cent, marking a higher jump than expected by economists, which means it is back up to the level it was in January.
The jobless rate rose to 4.1 per cent in April, the ABS announced today, up from a revised 3.9 per cent in March (it had previously been measured at 3.8 per cent for that month).
The market had been expecting a rise of 0.1 per cent.
“With employment rising by around 38,000 people and the number of unemployed growing by 30,000 people, the unemployment rate rose to 4.1 per cent and the participation rate increased to 66.7 per cent,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.
“The 30,000-people increase in unemployment reflected more people without jobs available and looking for work, and also more people than usual indicating that they had a job that they were waiting to start in.
“The increases in both employment and unemployment in April saw the participation rate up by 0.1 percentage point to 66.7 per cent in April. It has been relatively high, above 66.5 per cent, since March 2023.
“The employment-to-population ratio remained steady at 64.0 per cent in April, indicating that recent employment growth is broadly keeping pace with population growth.
“This suggests that the labour market remains tight, though less tight than late 2022 and early 2023.”
