Australian unemployment rate steady at 4.2 pc

CANBERRA: Australia's unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2% in August despite a fall in full-time employment.

Official labor force figures published on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said that the unemployment rate was 4.2% in August, matching the figure for July.

According to the ABS, the total number of employed Australians fell by 5,400 between July and August, but increased by 217,200 over the last 12 months.

It said that full-time employment decreased by 40,900 people between July and August, which was partially offset by an increase of 35,500 in the number of Australians employed part-time.

It comes after the number of Australians employed full-time increased by 60,500 between June and July.

Thursday's figures showed that the labor force participation rate and employment-to-population ratio each fell by 0.1%age point between July and August to 66.8 % and 64.0%, respectively.

Sean Crick, ABS head of labor statistics, said that the total number of hours worked by Australians was 0.4% lower in August than in July due to the drop in full-time employment.

By RSS/Xinhua