2020.08.1302:15:00UTC+00Australia Jobless Rate Climbs To 7.5% In July

The unemployment rate in Australia was a seasonally adjusted 7.5 percent in July, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That came in beneath expectations for 7.8 percent and was up from 7.4 percent in June.

The Australian economy added 114,700 jobs last month to 12,460,800 - exceeding forecasts for an increase of 40,000 following the addition of 210,800 jobs in the previous month.

Full-time employment increased 43,500 to 8,547,100 people and part-time employment increased 71,200 to 3,913,600 people.

The participation rate came in at 64.7 percent, beating forecasts for 64.4 percent and up from 64.0 percent a month earlier.

The underemployment rate decreased 0.5 points to 11.2 percent, while the underutilization rate fell 0.4 points to 18.7 percent.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 21.7 million hours to 1,681.3 million hours.