Flat Australian Job Market in January

Growth in seasonally adjusted employment grew by 1,200 in January according to the abs. Reversing the previous months trend, the rise in full-time employment of 33,700 was offset by a fall in part-time employment of -32,600. If you want to take a positive out of this report it is that full time jobs have been added in January and job losses have been mainly part-time.


The unemployment rate jumped to a seasonally adjusted 4.8% from 4.5% in December, the highest level since June 2006. The jump in the unemployment rate was due mainly to the rise in the number of people looking for work.

That said it should be noted that the Australian economy needs to produce approximately 15 - 20k jobs per month just to keep the unemployment rate steady. So even if employment levels stay flat, the unemployment rate will continue to rise.

Still, with the unemployment rate at 4.8% the Australia economy looks relatively healthy compared to it's OECD counterparts. How long that will remain the case is yet to be seen.