2018.07.1822:15:00UTC+00Australia Unemployment Rate Steady At 5.4%

The jobless rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 5.4 percent in June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That was in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous month.

The Australian economy added 50,900 jobs last month to 12,573,600 - shattering expectations for an increase of 16,500 following the addition of 12,000 in May.

Full-time employment increased 41,200 to 8,565,200 and part-time employment increased 9,700 to 4,008,400.

Unemployment decreased 1,100 to 714,100. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 5,100 to 501,900 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 6,100 to 212,200.

The participation rate ticked up to 65.7 percent, exceeding expectations for 65.5 percent - which would have been unchanged.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 10.7 million hours (0.6%) to 1,750.7 million hours.

Year-on-year growth in trend employment was above the 20 year average in all states and territories except for Victoria and Western Australia.

Over the past year, the states and territories with the strongest annual growth in trend employment were New South Wales (3.7 percent), Australian Capital Territory (2.9 percent) and Queensland (2.6 percent).