2020.02.2000:30:00UTC+00Australia January Unemployment Rate Rises To 5.3%

The jobless rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 5.3 percent in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That exceeded expectations for 5.2 percent and was up from 5.1 percent in December.

The Australian economy added 13.500 jobs last month to 12,995,400 people, again surpassing forecasts for a gain of 10,000 jobs following the gain of 28,900 jobs in the previous month.

Full-time employment increased by 46,200 to 8,882,200 people and part-time employment decreased by 32,700 to 4,113,300 people.

Unemployment increased by 31,000 to 725,900 people.

The participation rate was 66.1 percent, exceeding expectations for 66.0 percent - which would have been unchanged from the month prior.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 8.1 million hours to 1,781.8 million hours.

The monthly seasonally adjusted underemployment rate increased by 0.3 pts to 8.6 percent. The monthly underutilization rate increased by 0.5 pts to 13.9 percent.