Australia’s unemployment rate has risen by 0.2% to 3.7% in January, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The rate has remained at a 3.5% level since August 2022.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said that employment decreased by around 11,000 people, and the number of unemployed increased by 22,000.
"This was the second consecutive monthly fall in seasonally adjusted employment, but followed very strong growth during 2022,” Jarvis said.
"While the employment to population ratio fell between December and January, down 0.2 percentage points to 64.0 per cent, it was still 0.5 percentage points higher than January 2022 and 1.6 percentage points higher than March 2020.”
The ABS said that along with a larger-than-usual increase in unemployed people in January, there was also a similarly larger-than-usual rise in the number of unemployed people who had a job to go to in the future.
"January is the most seasonal time of the year in the Australian labour market, with people leaving jobs but also getting ready to start new jobs or return from leave,” Jarvis continued. “This January, we saw more people than usual with a job indicating they were starting or returning to work later in the month.”
The seasonally adjusted participation rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 66.5 per cent in January, down from the series high of 66.8 per cent in mid-2022.
Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked decreased by 2.1 per cent, which reflected a higher-than-usual number of people taking annual leave in January.
Jarvis said early January is the seasonal peak when people take annual leave.
“Around 43 per cent of employed people worked reduced or no hours because they were on leave, compared with around 41 per cent of employed people over the same period before the pandemic,” Jarvis said.
In January 2023, ABS said the proportion of people away from work on sick leave was back around the average, pre-pandemic level, unlike January 2022, when more people than usual were away from work on sick leave.
The seasonally adjusted underemployment rate remained at 6.1 per cent, 0.4 percentage points below January 2022.
The underutilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, rose 0.2 percentage points to 9.8 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms. This was 0.9 percentage points lower than January 2022.
Trend employment increased by 11,000 people (0.1 per cent) in January 2023, and trend monthly hours worked increased 0.2 per cent.
"The latest monthly increase in trend employment was around half of the monthly average for the 20 years before the pandemic, having been above the average for most of 2022," Jarvis said.
The trend unemployment rate remained at 3.5 per cent for the sixth consecutive month. The trend underemployment rate remained unchanged from December 2022, at 6.1 per cent.
The trend participation rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 66.5 per cent.