2020.12.1700:30:00UTC+00Australia Unemployment Rate Drops To 6.8% In November

The jobless rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 6.8 percent in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - beating expectations for 7.0 percent, which would have been unchanged.

The Australian economy added 90,000 jobs to 12,860,700 last month, blowing away forecasts for an increase of 50,000 jobs following the addition of 178,800 jobs in October.

Full-time employment added 84,200 jobs to 8,725,700 last month after gaining 97,000 in October. Part-time jobs gained 5,800 jobs to 4,135,00 last month after adding 81,800 jobs in October.

Over the year to November 2020, employment decreased by 0.6 percent or 83,100 people.

Unemployed people decreased by 17,300 to 942,100 and increased by 240,700 over the year to November 2020. The youth unemployment rate increased less than 0.1 pts to 15.6 percent and increased by 4.1 pts over the year to November 2020.

The participation rate came in at 66.1 percent, beating forecasts for 66.0 percent and up from 65.8 percent in the previous month. It increased by 0.2 pts for men to 71.0 percent and by 0.4 pts for women to 61.4 percent.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 42.8 million hours (2.5 percent) to 1,752 million hours. They decreased 1.2 percent over the year.

The underemployment rate decreased by 1.0 pts to 9.4 percent (1.1 pts higher than a year ago), while the underutilization rate decreased by 1.2 pts to 16.2 percent.