15.08.201822:18:00UTC+00Australia Jobless Rate Falls To 5.3% In July

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

That beat forecasts for 5.4 percent, which would have been unchanged from June.

The Australian economy shed 3,900 jobs last month to 12,575,200 - well shy of forecasts for the addition of 15,000 following the gain of 50,900 in the previous month.

Full-time employment increased 19,300 to 8,587,500 and part-time employment decreased 23,200 to 3,987,700.

Unemployment decreased 5,700 to 706,000. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 2,300 to 504,100 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 8,000 to 201,900.

The participation rate fell to 65.5 percent - also missing forecasts for 65.7 and down from the downwardly revised 65.6 percent a month earlier (originally 65.7 percent).

Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 4.0 million hours (0.2%) to 1,749.6 million hours.