The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.5% in September 2022, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
For women, the rate rose to 3.6% (up 0.1 percentage point) and remained steady for men at 3.5%.
The participation rate reportedly remained steady at 66.6%, in seasonally adjusted terms, which they said is consistent with the relatively small changes in employment and unemployment.
It fell slightly for women, down 0.1 percentage point to 62.3% and remained steady for men at 71%.
The data also reported that seasonally adjusted employment increased by 1,000 people (0.01%) in September 2022, which was less than the percentage increase in the population aged 15 and over (0.08%).
As a result, the employment to population ratio decreased slightly, ABS noted, to 64.2%, but remained 1.8 percentage points higher than before the pandemic.
"With employment increasing slightly, by around 1,000 people, and the number of unemployed increasing by 9,000, the unemployment rate rose by less than 0.1 percentage point but remained at 3.5 per cent in rounded terms,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.
“It is important to remember that the 1,000 employed people is a net figure – the difference between two large numbers.
“While employment growth has slowed in recent months, there are still close to half a million people entering employment each month, and around the same number leaving employment each month.”
In line with the relatively small net change in employment, seasonally adjusted hours worked decreased by 0.6 million hours in September, less than 0.1%.
“Some of the slowing in hours worked reflected a higher than usual number of people taking annual leave in September,” Jarvis continued. “This follows the past two Septembers when there were lower than usual numbers of people taking leave, given COVID-19 lockdowns and other restrictions.”
“The number of people working fewer hours because they were sick was also higher than we usually see in September, but only around 14 per cent higher. It is no longer around two to three times higher, as it was earlier in 2022.”
The underemployment rate remained at 6% in seasonally adjusted terms.
The underutilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, increased 0.1 percentage point to 9.6% in seasonally adjusted terms.